Personal ideals; or, Man as he is and may become ..

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PERSONAL IDEALS

PERSONAL IDEALS

OR

MAN AS HE IS AND MAY
BECOME

BY

R. DIMSDALE STOCKER

AUTHOR OF "sub-consciousness," "CLUES TO CHARACTER," "NEW

THOUGHT MANUALS," "PSYCHIC MANUALS," "SEBRSHIP AND

PROPHECY," "spirit, MATTER AND MORALS," ETC.

'Man partly is and wholly hopes to be." — R. Browning.

LONDON

L. N. FOWLER & CO.

7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, E.C.

NEW YORK

FOWLER & WELLS CO., i8 East 22ND Street
1909

1909

Copyright by L. N. Fowler & Co.

All rights reserved

Entered at Stationer^ Hall

PREFATORY NOTE

The scope and purpose of this book are sufficiently

indicated by the title as to render anything in the way

of a lengthy preface unnecessary, I may, however,

point out that my aim in writing it has been not

so much to be didactic, as suggestive ; and thereby

to send the reader, whoever he may be, to the facts

of life for enlightenment. Whether I have succeeded

or no, the reader must decide for himself. But at

least it is my hope that he will alight upon some

thought here and there, however imperfectly it may

be expressed, that will be the means of leading

him to search his own soul.

R. D. S.

— V —

CONTENTS

I

PAGE

Whitman's "Song of Myself" i

II

Spiritual Crankiness and Moral Faddists ... 22

III

"Suggestion" as a Factor in Character-Build-
ing 41

IV
The Key to Perfection 56

V
Ideals, Idealism, and Idolatry 74

WHITMAN'S "SONG OF MYSELF"

Behind every line, I had almost said, behind every
syllable, that he has written, lurks the personality
of Walt Whitman himself. And what an imposing,
impressive personality it is, to be sure, that we have
before us !

In that incomparable prose essay which may be
found in the more recent edition of his poetical
works, which bears for its title "A Backward Glance
o'er Travelled Roads," Whitman expressly points out
that his aim, from first to last, was mainly to put a
person, a human being, none other than his very
self, freely, fully and truly on record. And how
wondrously he succeeded in his attempt, all who are
familiar with the volume, "Leaves of Grass," will be
in a position to judge.

Well might he exclaim — as he did in one of
his fugitive fragments — " Camerado, this is no
book ; who touches this touches a man." It is

in this assertion of his own inherent individuality
(for better, for worse, whatever its merits, whatever
its defects), that lends to the whole work its
characteristic charm, uniqueness and fascination.
And the thought strikes one, how seldom it is that
a writer is thus visible in his compositions !

There are any number of books which one picks
up that are altogether found wanting in this respect.
They leave one in a state of bewilderment, un-
certainty and suspense as regards their authorship.
Almost anybody might have written them. In
spite of the fact that these books are often
attributed to writers who have achieved popularity
and fame, and who may even possess talent and
culture, they yet possess no distinctive individuality
of their own. There are books which one comes
across which might almost be supposed to have
written themselves. Such books, it is true, may not
be destitute of certain literary merit. They may
give evidence of consummate technical skill on the
part of their writers. Yet they produce, upon the
whole, what may be described as a wholly negative
impression upon the reader — inasmuch as they leave
him unmoved, and fail to touch a single responsive
chord in his breast. They neither stir nor convince.
They do not, in short, communicate to one that
subtle electric impulse without which the effort of

any writer must be abortive. I venture to believe
that, in these times, with the enormous multiplication
of volumes dealing with every variety of subject, these
works are in an overwhelming majority. Very rarely
indeed is a book that happens to achieve even
some measure of popularity destined to outlive its
generation. An exception must, however, now and
then be made. And a case in point is afforded us
by Whitman.

Here was a writer who, from the first, succeeded,
at least in part, in impressing himself upon his age.
Under his spell came some of the rarest and most
delicately nurtured minds of his time. And although
he has come into his own, like many another, only
after his death, even while he yet lived he contrived
to reach a tolerably extensive and enthusiastically
admiring public. Nor is the reason obscure. If, as
Ernest Renan alleges, the mass has no voice but can
only feel and stammer, it is not slow to interpret
the utterances of its prophets and seers. And it is
among such that Whitman may fittingly be included.
In him the new order became, for the first time,
articulate.

Upon the whole, few books that appeared in the
course of the nineteenth century so fully justified
their reputation as "Leaves of Grass." Probably
even this book does as little justice to its author's

genius as it does to its own theme. Yet its
message, as have few, gains in the delivery: every
word which it utters appearing to breathe and burn
as if it were inscribed, as it doubtless was, with the
very fibres of the man's nerves, in the blood of his
own heart.

In an eloquent passage included in his prose
writings, Whitman has told us what he conceives to
be the express function of all true poetry. His
words are these : " I say the profoundest service
that poems . . . can do for their reader is not
merely to satisfy the intellect or supply something
polished and interesting, nor even to depict great
passions in persons or events, but to fill him with
vigorous and clean manliness, religiousness, and give
him a good heart as a radical possession and habit."
His own work assuredly fulfils this condition. It
is precisely this spirit which permeates "Leaves of
Grass." Every line, every phrase — often amounting
to no more than some casual ejaculation — seems to
quiver and pulsate with emotion kindled at the
flame of life. In consequence of which it teems
with an intimacy with the problems of human
existence, to which only the few can pretend.

Of all the poems — chants or recitatives — what you
will — which have found a place in this incomparable
collection, none proclaims this fact with greater

— 5 —

emphasis or more consummate confidence than the
"Song of Myself." Here, in this poem, we find a
veritable confession of the man's attitude in regard
to life ; a summary and declaration of his inmost
beliefs, aspirations, hopes and convictions. And the
poem, be it observed, is all the more remarkable
because it reveals to us one who shared the life
with which we are familiar; indeed, it is remarkable
just for this reason, and because it throws into
forcible relief all the essential factors in our
common, everyday experience. Whitman published
this poem of his upwards of fifty years ago.* Like
every true seer, however, he lived in advance of his
age. More truly than any astrologist or soothsayer
could he forestall tendencies; with a swift and
unerring intuition he divined approaching events.
Almost unconsciously he discovered a world within
a world, beheld cosmos in chaos, light in darkness,
good in evil, idealism in what passed for materialism,
and spirituality in the unmentionable and gross.
And with the foresight begotten of a sincerely
sympathetic appreciation for his own era, he contrived
to construct an entire synthesis of the thought that
was destined to replace the current creed of his time.
In the case of such a man, nothing is more difficult

* The "Song of Myself" appeared in 1855.

— 6 —

to decide than whether he more impressed the
thought of his age, or was not more influenced than
those about him with the unacknowledged trend in
thought and morals. Probably, neither speculation is
wide of the mark ; but, from whatever cause.
Whitman stands pre-eminently for modernity, and
may be construed as especially typical of the revolt
from a spurious and artificial idealism which cen-
turies of supernaturalism had fostered and left behind
them. His advent signalled an attempt to clear the
debris entirely from the intellectual and moral regions
wherein mankind were left to stagnate. In him the
Superman has its spokesman and interpreter.

Thoreau has said that Whitman and democracy
are one ; and as one proceeds to glance through his
self-revelations, one realizes the justice of the comment.
The movement which is now spoken of as Social
Democracy may indeed appear to proceed indepen-
dently of Whitman's especial ideals and enthusiasms.
Yet, at its core, we may discern the identical
objective whence he derived his inspiration. And
this seems to me to be all the more significant
because, as I interpret the implications of Socialism,
we are reaching a stage when we are beginning to
realize more and more the value of the individual.
In this respect. Whitman was prophetic. Never does
he seek to convert life into a mere mechanical con-

— 7 —

trivance, nor does he resort to the clumsy and
ineffectual expedient of forcing men into any pre-
arranged system or theory of life. Of these, to judge
by his own deliverances upon the subject, the world has
already had enough and to spare. Nothing, in his
eyes, is greater or more infinitely sacred than simple
manhood or womanhood. Over this, he will set
neither deity, king, priest, president, nor any other
ruler. It must become a law unto itself. Divinity
itself inheres primarily, if not exclusively, in the
single, separate person. Beside this, all else is but
as a type, a symbol, a myth, and as such,
destined to pass into oblivion when its turn has
been served.

To be apprehended aright, the "Song of Myself"
must needs be regarded as an appeal to the in-
dividualistic sentiment. It is sublime in its egoism.
It is addressed by the solitary soul to itself: it is
Oneself in converse with itself. It ignores every-
thing but ego-am-ity. " It is you talking just as
much as myself. I act as the tongue of you. Tied
in your mouth, in mine it begins to be loosened." '

The opening words, which announce this central
thought, are these : —

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
And what I assume you shall assume.
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

_ 8 —

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the

origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are

millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand,

nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the

spectres in books.
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things

from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."

From such a passage, one may immediately per-
ceive the main standpoint. The individual is every-
thing : its possibilities are all but infinite. And, as
he proceeds to develop this conception, we find a
surpassing example of self-universalization — in which
the self, instead of being abstracted by a process of
philosophic speculation, is identified with the whole
cosmos.

Primarily, no doubt, the purport of the " Song of
Myself" is autobiographical. There are many refer-
ences in the poem to the writer. He speaks of
himself, for instance, as having reached the age of
thirty-seven, and later narrates several incidents, which
were undoubtedly founded upon actual facts in his
own life.

In these evident allusions to himself, however, the
more sympathetic reader will discover little trace of
the vulgar bombast and assertion in which self-
absorbed natures are liable to indulge. To mistake

— 9 —

his message in this respect is to miss its entire
purpose and intention. Whitman is, indeed, all too
mindful of this possible misunderstanding not to meet
the untoward contingency. " I know," he cries, " per-
fectly well my own egotism." He is in no wise
ashamed " to dote on himself." And, knowing himself
to be august, he will not so much as trouble to
vindicate himself or waste time with apologies. The
"eternal laws," he finds, provide him with an excellent
precedent for his policy, and he does not hesitate to
avail himself of the opportunity which his book
affords him of emulating so admirable an example.
He speaks of himself as a Kosmos : as an elemental
being, including all things that he finds without him :
as "turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and
breeding " : no sentimentalist, but giving forth that he
is divine, inside and out, making holy whatever he
touches or is touched by. " The scent of these armpits "
he finds to be " finer aroma than prayer," " this head
more than churches, bibles or creeds." The touch is
an exceedingly characteristic one. Yet to attribute
such outbursts to mere rhetorical bombast or self-
conceit would be widely wide of the mark. In truth,
with the average egotist, who is content to prate of
his own private exploits. Whitman has nothing in
common, as every line of his poetry abundantly
demonstrates. Empty self-complacency, begotten of

— lO —

a petty personal vanity, is utterly foreign to his
nature and gospel. His standpoint is the very
directest antithesis of it. In his eyes, the self-hood
of mankind proclaims a concrete, not merely potential,
equality between all men. And, applying the prin-
ciple to himself, he is as good as the rest of them.
Though he is not, therefore, at liberty to dominate
another, his independence forbids him from yielding
his place to any man. In that place he is unique ;
he is all-sufficient ; and it is his business to fetch the
whole world flush with himself. "If these things," he
says in one place, "are not yours as much as they
are mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing." It
is the man who makes things great. The greatest
things in life accrue only through the relationships
and adjustments between a man and his environment ;
most of all, between man and man. Every man is,
in the last resort, his own deliverer and judge ; but
isolate him, wrench him from his objective, and what
remains of him ? Whitman realizes the value and
worth of this modern view. God and eternity even
do not exist independent of man. "Men and women
are not dots or dreams." They are inexhaustible
factors and aims in progress. Indeed, they are
progress itself. " How dare you," he says in one
place, "place anything before a man?"

As we follow him, we seem to forget that it is

— n —

another who is speaking. So absolutely has he
related himself with our moods and feelings, that
we seem, temporarily at least, to have transcended
the limits of our ordinary selves. And by this, I do
not in the least intend to suggest that Whitman is
guilty of transporting us, any more than himself,
to some dim, shadowy, far-away region. On the
contrary, his mission, as he says, is nothing if it is
not to bring people back from persistent strayings
and sickly abstractions, down to the artless average :
the divine, original and concrete.

Never perhaps was a poet so purely concrete as
Whitman — what entrances him is the Ever-present,
the Nowness of things. Life, full and abundant, is
no business for the intellectual gymnast, no pastime
for the idle speculator whose will-o'-the-wisps bring
him to the verge of mental bankruptcy. Never
would he beguile the hours by sighing for the far
off, unattained and dim. All that he desires and
deserves exists at this immediate instant of time.
As he waits and witnesses, he is filled with
an indescribable delight. All that lies before him
becomes animated. The smoke of his own breath,
his inhalation and exhalation, the beatings of his
heart, the movements of his lungs, fill him with an
indescribable ecstacy. The senses are miracles in his
eyes. And his enthusiasm does not cease even here.

— 12 —

He is not satisfied to argue or speculate. He must
there and then wonder and admire everything : he
includes the whole world in his embrace. "Clear
and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all
that is not my soul." He is enamoured of " growing
out of doors." Whatever is common, cheap, accessible
and easy he identifies with himself. Unlike the man
who would strive after perfection, he believes the
attainments of the ordinary person sufficient for his
needs.

And the homeliest facts serve him for types. They
are better suited to his purpose than arguments,
however subtle. In the sow and her litter, and in
the brood of the turkey-hen, he sees in operation
the self-same law whose presence he divines within his
own heart. A morning glory at his window satisfies
him better than all the metaphysics of the scholars.
Logic and sermons do not convince him so deeply
as the damp of the night. " If you would under-
stand me go to the heights or water shore. The
nearest gnat is an explanation, and a drop or
motion of waves a key. The maul, the oar, the
handsaw, second my words."

Soul and body are consubstantial to Whitman. He
will not be at the pains to define and particularise.
The vital and mechanical theories do not disturb his
imperturbable serenity.

— 13 —

We are to be brought face to face with life as it
actually is — not only as it is thought about— but with
life as it is unconsciously and instinctively realized
— physiologically as well as intellectually. He comes
to us in order that we may not only exist in some
far-away retreat created by our fancy, but that we
may enter into the scheme of things as our senses
report it to us.

And more and more, as I reflect upon it, do I
realize the urgency for accepting Whitman's point of
view. We have only too often belittled and de-
graded this "common life." And not only have we
consciously been guilty of doing this for ourselves,
we have unconsciously thrown contempt upon it for
others. In Whitman's eyes, this world of ours, even
as it is, is by no means the worst of all possible
places.

At the same time his outlook, so far from con-
templating the actual to the exclusion of the super-
sensible, at once suggests to us what an infinitely
grander and more inspiring affair life would become if
we could so enter into it as to make our hopes and
enjoyments, and chances and opportunities a mutual
matter. The commonest of facts — a sweet, clean,
healthy body; a sufficiency of sunlight, fresh air,
and wholesome food ; and enough employment and
leisure to lend a zest to living, — these he would tell

— 14 —

us should satisfy any man. And how wondrously
sane is his verdict! Yet, as one ponders the matter,
one asks oneself, how many members of our civil-
ized community secure these things as their portion?
Whose existence is not choked up with the weeds of
care, anxiety, love of riches, and worldly ambition?
Not that these things are worthless, but he finds
that there are weightier matters which must adjust
the balance before life can appear under its more
becoming aspect.

No natural process, it is almost needless to say, is
too coarse for treatment in his eyes. None becomes
an occasion of abhorrence or contempt. No physio-
logical law incurs his censure or disdain, and he
even appears to be convinced that the experience
of evil is as inevitable and necessary as the expe-
rience of its contrary, good.

In his "Song of Myself," for instance. Whitman
seems ready to accept pain and suffering as the
educators of man. And it is this magnificent op-
timism which is perhaps his finest moral attribute.
He cannot bring himself to exclude even evil. The
scheme would not be perfect apart from it. It is
true that he holds man implicitly accountable for
this; but, inasmuch as a knowledge of evil points
the way to better things, so it becomes, in its turn,
divinely appointed. So stout is his faith, that he

— IS —

somehow feels it to be a means to an eternal end.
His biographer, Dr. Maurice Bucke, tells us that
Whitman disclosed an almost total inability to feel
evil himself. This may be gathered from the follow-
ing passage, which occurs in the Author's work
" Cosmic Consciousness." " I believe all the poet's
senses are exceptionally acute, his hearing especially
so ; no sound or modulation of sound perceptible to
others escapes him, and he seems to hear many
things that to ordinary folk are inaudible. I have
heard him speak of hearing the grass grow and the
trees coming out in leaf." Yet " his cheeks are
round and smooth, his face has no lines expressive
of care, or weariness, or age. The habitual expres-
sion of his face is repose ; but there is a well-
marked firmness and decision.

" I have never seen his look, even momentarily,
express contempt or any vicious feeling. I have
never known him to sneer at any person or thing,
or to manifest in any way or degree either alarm
or apprehension, though he has in my presence been
placed in circumstances that would have caused both
in most men. ... I never knew him to be in a bad
temper." "Perhaps," he says, "no man who ever
lived liked so many things and disliked so few as
Walt Whitman." And so inconceivably compre-
hensive are his range and grasp, that he can truly

_ i6 —

say, as he does, "not an inch or a part of an inch"
is vile. It may be doubted whether, since the time
when the first chapter of Genesis was written, any
writer has pronounced so eulogistic an utterance
upon creation.

Yet, as I read these "Leaves" I do not find their
writer condoning evil. Responsibility is not non-exis-
tent ; and if he is at little pains to conceal evil, still
less would he justify its commission. Whitman is, in
truth, too great to whitewash and extenuate the
meannesses and flaws and imperfections which dis-
figure so many otherwise noble characters. He may,
he does, see beyond these ; even in the most depraved
his keen eye detects the beauties which the shadows
are a means of throwing into relief. But he never
yields to the temptation of gilding vice or making
wrong appear right. Human standards may not be
eternal. He may detect their weakness and the pre-
sumption of those who pin their faith upon them ;
yet these are nothing to him.

He can witness toil, sin, and sorrow, with equani-
mity, simply because he feels that man not only
has the means, but the will, at his command to
surmount such obstacles. His moral sense is of the
robustest. He has none of the ethical squeamish-
ness that pertains to less spontaneous natures.
Moralist that he is, not a single word suggests the

— 17 —

air of one whose innocence can be injured by un-
conventional methods. Thus, whilst he believes in
good, he believes in it because he must. He cannot
help himself. It suits him. He is built to be social.
He positively prefers it to being selfish. In associa-
tion with others he discovers the fullest measure of
that liberty which is calculated to secure the well-
being of all.

The minutest object to such a man may become
a sign-post on the road of life, the most casual
circumstance possessing a wholly unsuspected signi-
ficance for him. In one place he quaintly says :
"The bug and the bull are not worshipped enough.

Dung and dirt are more admirable than was dreamed."

Such words as these possess a meaning of the

deepest psychological order :

" Mine is no callous shell,
I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop,
They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me."

"Whoever degrades another degrades me,
And whatever is done or said returns at last to me."

In this last sentence, morality has ceased to be

a private affair, and has become cosmic. His words

suggest that more and more all power may be won

on the side of Right. Who shall say that, some day,

the universe may not be proved to be under the

guidance of the purified and unselfish love of such

sublime souls?

c

— i8 —

For the supernatural, Whitman has literally no use.
Dreams and fantasies and fine spun theories regarding
the Almighty and the hereafter he dismisses with a
shrug of his muscular shoulders. He will not bring
himself to speak of commencements and conclusions.
Creator and created, soul and body, spiritual and
material, are but terms to such a man. The sur-
passing fact is life itself. To what purpose, he would
say, are all these distinctions and refinements ?
What greater miracles or revelation are you seeking
than the curl of yonder smoke, or a hair on the
back of your hand? Moses with his burning bush, or
Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes, could not furnish
more convincing proofs than these.

So accustomed are many to seek for the divine
only in the unexplained, the unusual or the excep-
tional, that they overlook these simple every-day
occurrences. Yet, to a mind like Whitman's, what
a universe lay therein !

If Whitman is a poet and artist, he is, before
everything, a religionist, and an ethical religionist
at that. He tells us that he would inaugurate a
religion. His claim is well founded. His quarrel is
with unreality— with the shams, the shadows, the
pretences and make-believes that pass muster for
solemn truth. The simplest fact brings a man of
this stamp to his senses: the clasp of the hand of

— 19 —

a comrade, the sense of wonder in the eyes of an
infant in its cradle, the runaway slave seeking shelter
at his door. "The bay mare shames silliness out of
him." The very oxen express more to him than
all the print he has ever read. " I do not snivel that
snivel the world over that the months are vacuums
and the ground but wallow and filth."

As one reads such sentences, one cannot fail to
stand convicted of one's conscience. Into all that has
escaped one — into the simple, trivial, every-day persons
and occurrences that one has been familiar with ever
since one could remember, — this man reads a celestial
message. How it accuses us that we have not made
— are not making — the most of our time! I suppose
that the question, "Is life worth living?" never
seriously troubled Whitman. Mortality for him was
neither a sewer nor a tunnel. For him, if the sun
did not shine, the clouds were present in the sky ;
and if he could not see the clouds, he just found
something nearer at hand. Where most of us have
brought logic to combat our fits of hopelessness and
depression. Whitman finds himself better employed
by taking the bad with the good, the grave with
the gay: every emotion is to be an experience of
value, and he finds little to be got by questioning
or debating.

It is the same with his religion as with his life.

— 20 —

His morals need no bolstering up by authority or
utilitarianism. They are the spontaneous outcome of
his very soul. Loosed of imaginary limits, he launches
himself into the unknown, greeting alike the unseen
and the seen with a cheer. Nothing, he is convinced,
can come to him that is not self-decreed, that the
law of his own being has not, in some fashion,
appointed.

Emerson has told us that "of immortality, the
soul when well employed is incurious. It is so
well that it is sure it will be well. It asks no ques-
tion of the supreme power."

This is the case with Whitman. In his "Varieties
of Religious Experience," Prof. James gives Walt
Whitman as an example of the religion of healthy
mindedness. It can truthfully be said, no more
adequate illustration could be forthcoming.

Immortality is a foregone conclusion with him.
All is immortality. Collapse, stoppage, extinction are
unthinkable to one of his mind. He laughs at dis-
solution : to die is luckier than one supposed. " Has
any one supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten
to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and
I know it."

All is destined to survive somehow, somewhere.
"No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times
before." " I know I have the best of time and

— 21 —

space, and was never measured and never will be
measured." He even makes the startling announce-
ment that he may, for aught he knows, reappear
upon the earth after the lapse of Sckx) years. For
the will to suffer defeat, for his wishes and aims and
purposes to be frustrated and brought to naught, is
wholly inconceivable to Whitman.

Now and then he seems to attain a state of
mystical ecstasy, and we feel constrained to remem-
ber his cautionary that he is untranslatable. But he
does not leave us in cloudland. On the contrary, as
if to check himself, as though he would restrain the
enthusiasm of those who would do him violence and
interpret him according to the canons of transcenden-
talism, he concludes the " Song of Myself" in a
peculiarly quaint but inimitable manner. His words
are these:

" I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean.
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre to your blood.

" Failing to find me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you."

II

SPIRITUAL CRANKINESS AND MORAL
FADDISTS

Almost everybody, I suppose, is acquainted with a
" crank " of some description — and some of us may
possibly have earned the enviable reputation for being
" faddists " or cranks ourselves. I think, therefore,
that I am fully justified in assuming that all my
readers will be familiar with the meaning of the
words which stand for a title to this chapter.
Such being the case, I need not enter upon a lengthy
definition of these expressive terms.

Crankiness of the kind to which I happen to be
referring may be encountered in all sections of
society ; indeed, it is a rather fashionable affliction.
It takes different people, however, in exceedingly
diverse ways. Many people of breeding, taste and
culture, are cranks upon some special point, and
some people who are totally lacking in polish and
refinement are cranks no less. In most respects.

— 23 —

— 23 —

cranks are quite ordinary, every-day people — you
would not suspect that they were different from the
generality of persons ; but on one point they adopt
some view or opinion which distinguishes them from
their critics. Consequently they are known as
faddists.

In not a few respects, modern civilization is
peculiarly favourable to the cult of the crank. We
live in an age of specialization — when people are
naturally anxious to appear different from everybody
else. Hence, our mental life tends to become concen-
trated, or exclusively centred in particular channels
or grooves. Grooviness is one of the curses of the
age; an all-round man is the exception. If a man
enters the medical profession now-a-days, he cannot
achieve distinction unless he is a specialist. He must
be an oculist, or an aurist, or an authority upon
some valve of the heart or chamber of the lungs, or
failing either of these, perchance a toe- or thumb-nail
specialist. The "general practitioner" has long been
relegated to the past. Nor is he alone in this
respect. The same fate has overtaken many another.
Everywhere one discovers our competitive system
to have given rise to the cultivation of some one
branch of knowledge to the exclusion of everything
beside. Formerly this was not so. In days gone by,
your apothecary was not unlike your clockmaker or

— 24 —

tailor or shoemaker, at least in this respect : he knew
his craft from start to finish. To-day, however, all
is changed. In his place we have, not only the
physician, whose practical knowledge of dispensing is
confined to what he learned when he was a student,
but the "chemist's assistant," whose qualifications for
his post are about sufficient to entitle him to under-
take the arduous duties of librarian at a fancy goods'
store.

Our present system may not be without its com-
pensating advantages. Seriously, however, one is
inclined to feel that, upon the whole, this age is
tending to encourage a certain lopsidedness ; with the
ever-increasing multiplicity of our aims and interests,
men are becoming too closely absorbed with some
one special " line " to the exclusion of everything
else.

As a natural consequence, people tend to live in
the narrowest of worlds which society has contrived
to fashion for them.

People often tell us that our civilization tends to
broaden the mind. Rural life is voted slow, monoto-
nous, and inconsistent with " progress." The point
is doubtless open to dispute. My candid impression,
however, is, that in our congested metropolitan areas
people are very liable to live narrow, contracted lives,
this being for the exceedingly obvious reason that

— 25 —

comparatively little scope is afforded to the play of
the emotions. Just picture the insufferably wooden,
stereotyped existence of the average breadwinner of
to-day — of the man or the woman who, year in and
year out, is forced to toil simply for the bare neces-
saries of life — for the sake of a bare livelihood.
Think of the industrial population, and then of the
business men, the city clerks, and the impecunious
professional classes who rise every morning — in some
cases Sundays, and also Bank-holidays — simply with
one idea facing them : that of going out to make
money — in the factory, the office, or elsewhere, as
the case may be ; and who, when they have finished
the day's routine, are too dead-tired to interest them-
selves in anything beyond the necessity for a few
hours' physical rest. What cannot but be the result?
Lopsidedness, and ofttimes premature decay.

Such people are often cranks, their interests being
exceedingly limited, and their ignorance colossal.
Even busmen, who must be included in this group,
are cranks. The "busman's holiday" is indeed pro-
verbial ; in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred he
has no interest whatever in anything beyond his own
horses and public conveyance. Even the motor-bus
passes his comprehension. A little while back I
happened to be riding in London on the front seat
on the top of an omnibus. As usual, I got into

— 26 —

conversation with the driver, who told me that he
had been on his present bus, from the Bank to
Netting Hill, for no less than seven years. In all
that time he had never changed his route. I
spoke to him of the improvements which had been
made in the Strand. He expressed his surprise.
Though he had lived in London the whole seven
years, he had never been so far as the Strand. He
was a crank. Circumstances had made him so.

And, from what I know of the habits of most
men, so far from regarding my busman's case as
exceptional, I should regard it as typical ; unless we
are altogether out of the common, we inevitably tend
to live in quite as narrow and restricted a sphere.
And besides the cranks which are created by the
force of circumstances, we find the self-created cranks
— a far more common variety. There are the cranks
who play — or who try to play — as well as the cranks
who work. We find football cranks, cricket cranks,
golf cranks, bridge cranks, theatre-going cranks, betting
cranks — people, in short, of all sorts who take up
some special form of recreation and with whom
their hobby becomes a mania. These cranks vary
to some extent, individually. Thus we have the
sporting crank who actually plays golf and cricket
himself. Many of them, however, are contented to
watch others play these games for them. Judging

— 27 ~

by the attendances at cricket matches, football ties,
and other athletic entertainments in recent years,
these cranks seem to be increasing in numbers.

Now all these cranks may be at bottom amiable,
inoffensive folk. To be a crank need not necessarily
mean that one is a criminal. But the great drawback
about all crankiness is, that it tends to make life
one-sided and partial. It precludes the possibility of
viewing it in its true perspective ; and not a few of
the so-called " indispensable adjuncts " of our civilized
existence, limit and confine, rather than they can be
said to extend, our mental horizon. Newspapers, for
example, which are supposed to widen the intellectual
life, under existing conditions positively succeed in
narrowing their readers* range of vision. How many
people, when they open a paper, do not turn to it
as a modern oracle, in order to have their whims
and prejudices reinforced and confirmed ?

Besides intellectual cranks, however, there are others.
People may become "cranky" from sheer pressure of
circumstances, or through mere inclination. They
may also develop this affliction from another pre-
disposing cause : viz., an overwhelming sense of duty.
Upon the whole, this perhaps is the worst excuse
that can be offered for crankiness. In any case, it
is the most difficult type of crankiness to eradicate.

One often feels tempted to complain at a life that

— 28 —

is lived without a purpose : at the vicious system
which compels people to cramp and cripple their
intellectual faculties, and at those wasted lives which
are frittered away in the pursuit of mere idle self-
gratification.

But it may seriously be doubted whether either of
these courses is as truly inimical to one's interests as
a life upon which self-torture is inflicted upon moral
grounds.

How prone mankind is, even now, to give credit
to the person who is supposed to be doing his duty
by performing some act of supererogation — by making
a martyr of himself, or herself!

What a common experience it is to hear people
associate the moral life exclusively with the idea of
self-abnegation, and of complete indifference to one's
just due. With many, the matter comes to this : if
only a person contrives to torture himself sufficiently
— if only he can be sufficiently inoffensive, meek,
modest and mild, and self-sacrificing, he is immediately
set down as a saint or a martyr.

Yet what a desecration of the moral ideal! Is
there, one would like to ask, nothing better to be
done than to make a martyr of oneself?

And, observe: I am not in the least disposed to
call in question the sincerity or the devotion of the
person who performs these acts of self-obliteration.

— 29 —

He may be, as I think he is, deluded and mistaken
in his method. That he may, at the same time,
exhibit an heroic spirit I should be unwilling to
deny. What I am attacking is the absurdity and
the immorality in the attitude of those who are
ready to approve such actions.

How much sincerity and sympathy are wasted
simply because people affect to believe it to be the
long-suffering wife's duty to sacrifice every con-
sideration — even her self-respect and chastity, to say
nothing of her money — for the sake of some principle
which has ordained that she shall live, until the hour
of death, with some worthless fellow whom, in some
rash moment of her youth, she was persuaded that
she loved ! How little common justice is shown
when people will suffer conventions to override their
rational judgment.

Nor would I, for one moment, be understood to
say that the marriage bond should be esteemed
lightly. Sacred it is, indeed. If, however, it is to
be in actuality what it has stood for as an ideal, it
must be something other than a burden. Wise was
Goethe when he wrote, "We have no duty except
when we love what we command ourselves to do."
We may, it is true, deceive ourselves that duty and
inclination are distinct, if not opposed, conceptions.
Once, however, we search our hearts, and I believe

_ 30 —

we shall realize that whatever is seriously considered
to be a duty springs rather from love than from
fear. Hence it is that people cannot be held together
by the iron fetters of force and popular opinion. To
make people realize the sanctity of the marital tie
we must not bind them from without; nothing from
without will endure. What must be done by society
is to remedy the conditions which make unsatisfactory
marriages possible.

The ethical crank may be of several types. The
usual moral fanatic is what I would call the "one
virtue " man. Life for him must be lived upon one
principle — and one principle alone. This is the
person who judges everybody by a single standard.
He exalts some special moral rule at the expense
of the rest. His watchword may be "fidelity," or
"love," or "justice," or "truthfulness," or "sobriety,"
or "honesty," or "thrift." But he would subordinate
everybody to his one virtue. Everybody he meets
must be " steadfast," or " consistent," or " loving," or
"just," or "truthful," or "temperate," or "honest," or
"thrifty" — or he has no use for them.

Now, it need hardly be said how high these
virtues must rank in the estimation of all who revere
the ethical life. To be guilty of the smallest breach
of the ethical law, must be to offend in all things.

_ 31 —

Yet, how much of beauty and worth escapes us when
we carry about a moral microscope with which to
inspect others!

It is not that we should blind ourselves to the
shortcomings of others. But what we have to
remember is this, that their virtues are ofttimes less
apparent than their failings. And that, if we would
have them as they should be, we must realize their
possibilities more.

An Eastern proverb runs, "Blessed be he who
has the good eye." The good eye is like the
divining rod: it helps us to find where the well-
springs in human nature lie. It sees the things that
the physical vision and critical faculty alone can
never assist us in finding. And it does even more
than that. It enables the possessor to be creative.
The " good eye " is nothing less than the creative
eye. It calls to itself the things that it is constituted
to behold. It brings to light the hidden things, and
makes plain the dark ways and purposes of life.
We often speak of people finding what they seek.
Their search is rewarded by the care and sympathy
which they bestow upon it. This is so with those
who have the creative eye. They are the people
who seem to make other people good. They will
not see only the flaws and imperfections of those
about them, and they even succeed in making others

— 32 —

less observant of the seamy side of people. The
good eye does not measure people by itself. It
learns to adapt itself to the object of its vision.
And, unless he would become an ethical crank, a
man must have the good eye.

Then, again, there is the crank who extols the
" moral order " as if it were something superior to
man. Superior to the conduct of many men it may
be, and certainly is. But the moral law is not
something that can be said to exist apart from
ourselves.

The meanest and most depraved man is worth
more than the most exalted moral theory as such.
No greater idolatry is perpetrated than when men
make a fetish of ethicism.

The moral faddist of whom I am speaking, in-
variably acts according to some "rule" as he calls
it. Life to him is not a spontaneous or natural
affair. It must be run on tram-rails. Every detail
must be manufactured into a moral problem. The
most trivial pleasure must be weighed. Such a man
has "right or wrong" on the brain.

Now, I am fully aware that the sense of duty
commonly appears to be in need of greater cul-
tivation. People, it would seem, are slow to realize
their responsibilities. Yet, the more I think it over,

— 33 —

the less am I inclined to believe that people require
to be made more conscientious. Hosts of people
who do the worst possible deeds simply do them on
"principle" — on the false assumption that it is their
duty to do them. The only reason that they can
offer for fault-finding, — indulging their mild aptitude
for persecution is, — that it is their duty to do thus.

This intolerable temptation to force the moral
nature at the expense of the social and intellectual
is noticeable even in children. From their earliest
years, children are taught a habit of introspection,
which, in its way, is no doubt an excellent thing.
Every child should be brought up so that it is
able to realize the claims of others, in order to do
which a rigid process of self-examination must needs
be encouraged. But to what lengths do not parents
and teachers go in training the young in this respect,
and with what deplorable results !

As I walk along the street, I hear children being
told "how naughty" they are. The child runs a
little way ahead of its elder : it is naughty. It stops
a little way behind : it is naughty again. It falls
down and dirties its clothes : it is naughtier than
ever. The parents are not sincere enough to tell
the child why it is naughty. Oh, no; they do not
say you are naughty because you give me the
trouble of running after you, or calling you, or

— 34 —

waiting for you, or of dusting your clothes, or
because I shall be put to the unnecessary exertion
of smacking you. Not at all. They are not sincere
enough to adopt so straightforward a plan of action.
They must needs invent some mythical " sin " —
telling the child that it is exceedingly "naughty,"
when it is only indulging its natural high spirits.
In time, of course, confidence between their elders
and the young is forfeited. Meanwhile, however,
they imbibe utterly false notions of morality, and
are apt to entertain morbid and distorted opinions
of conduct. Frequently, to please their preceptors,
they attempt to conform to a standard that is
utterly beyond them — when they are accused of
being prigs and hypocrites.

As it is, the entire method of instructing the
young in behaviour is radically mischievous. Just
as, if you pay particular attention to the body, you
come to find you have any number of ailments ;
so with the soul. By this habit of excessive self-
consciousness, the child loses all its natural spontaneity
Personally, I do not think children need much moral
instruction. What they want is less interference
from their elders and more companionship with little
people of their own age. Then they evolve their
own standards of morality. If you ask me whether
children's moral training should be neglected, I am

— 35 —

constrained to reply, assuredly not. Nothing can be
of greater importance than to see that their young
minds receive the requisite stimulus to right doing.
To have the care and training of youth is probably
the greatest responsibility that can devolve upon one.
Yet it is a responsibility too little understood. One
cannot moralise effectually for the child's benefit
unless its point of view is first appreciated. As a
rule, the child has the advantage of its elders. It
knows its teacher better than the teacher knows it.
Like grown people, children cannot be made moral
by compulsory measures. But here, again, children
have the advantage. They foresee failure in the
attempt which is made in so many cases to improve
them. Conformity, it is true, may be secured by
the ordinary means, but morals never. And be it
remarked that, along with all servile conformity, the
moral impulse ceases. The moral crank is always
self deceived.

Why, I wonder, do so many people still labour
under the abominable delusion that life must be
rendered painful before it can be sweet and good ?
Why is the fallacious and pernicious notion still
harboured that the moral nature grows and develops
to better purpose in the dark than in the sunshine ?
— that self-torture is the only road to wisdom — and
that unless life is made laborious and hard and

- 36 -

difficult it will be thrown away and wasted? What
a horrible and blasphemous travesty of the truth !
How can people persuade themselves that, as it is,
there is not enough suffering and sorrow in life with-
out augmenting these things? Without denying that
it may be either necessary or a blessing in disguise,
who, in his heart of hearts, can possibly bring himself
to consecrate suffering? Yet, unthinkingly, that is
precisely what we do every day of our lives!

What, I cannot help thinking, has yet to be
learned is, that suffering and sorrow, if they are to
be of the slightest educational value to man, must
be accepted as matters of growth. To arbitrarily
and deliberately inflict them either upon oneself or
another, must be to rob them of whatever value they
may possess in the evolutionary process. For it to
be of service, suffering must depend upon experience.
As it is, our view of suffering and punishment is
erroneous. A man, let us say, commits some foul
deed, of which he is adjudged guilty, and for which
he is accordingly sentenced by society to a term of
imprisonment. But the problem presents itself: is
any conceivable purpose served by subjecting any-
body to such treatment? Apart altogether from the
obsolete view that proceedings against the offender
are instituted as a safety valve for the outraged
feelings of society against him, is it not a fact that.

— 37 —

so far from becoming the occasion of his reformation,
incarceration in gaol may actually defeat its os-
tensible ends, inasmuch as it will afford the criminal
an opportunity for reflecting upon the injustice to
which the existing system has condemned him, and
for deriving a low order of enjoyment in projecting
further anti-social acts as a means of out- witting his
foes? In any case, I suppose, the serious student of
such a question must realize that suffering as a means
to morality is, to say the least of it, unproven. In
view of which fact, bearing in mind that experience
teaches that people cannot be goaded into the
" narrow way," a careful re-consideration of our
methods should in future engage the attention of
every progressive reformer and legislator. To this
end the idea must become more general than is at
present the case, that people are to learn the value
of true citizenship other than by Acts of Parliament,
prisons and policemen.

Better than any one of these is the force of
example : the sphere of personal influence, at which
all who are vitally interested in the welfare of the
race should aim. What compulsion and force are
powerless to accomplish, example and character will
often — perhaps seldom fail to — effect. Yet to what
extent is example relied upon under existing circum-
stances? To me the lamentable lapses in public and

- 38 -

private morals constitute a damaging indictment of the
present order in this respect. And when I speak of
"example," I do not mean that it is incumbent upon
one to set up as a moral hero, or seek to be placed
on a pedestal for the gaze of admiring beholders.
How often people have tried this ! How often have
they failed ! What a lesson it should teach us !

What I mean by the force of example is that
unconscious power which one wields of influencing
others ; that personal contact with them which
enables one to enter into their lives and become
their advisers, counsellors and friends. This is often
felt by another quite as much by what one leaves
unsaid and undone as by the mere words one utters
or the things one attempts. The greatest good in
the world is not accomplished by the finest talkers or
by those who live the loftiest lives under the public
eye. On the contrary, the highest achievements often
have their root in the silentest lives. The would-be
reformer is not necessarily the most successful ex-
ponent of his own gospel. People resent, and rightly
so, the notion of being preached at. And the most
powerful incentive to holiness lies less in the sermon
than in the suggestion, which any man may be
capable of giving.

Where many of the world's greatest teachers have
been misled has been in assuming that people were

— 39 —

to be made good by the application of mechanical
or extraneous aids. They are not. Ethical cranks
may tell us so. Experience, however, lends no
support whatever to the assertion. The teachers have
wanted to set down rules ; but life is greater than
any rules. Rules we must have, but they must not
be of other people's making.

It may be a good thing to consider the Tightness
and wrongness of things. Indeed, I know of no deed
that does not involve this consideration. But one may
carry one's zeal too far. It may be right for me to
be a vegetarian, or a teetotaler, or a champion of
"woman's rights," but I have no right to expect you
to copy me. I can well sympathize with a person
whose scruples of conscience lead him to ask whether
he ought to take one glass of wine or two, or
whether he should abstain from taking any. But let
me say this : if he cannot judge this for himself, I
shall be unable to help him. I may advise him to
the best of my ability, but in any case I can speak
only as a friend — as one man would speak to
another.

And this brings me to the point which I wish
especially to emphasize — and it shall be my last —
that, after all, our greatest opportunities for well-
doing lie not in the great things of life — not in the
stupendous attempts we would make to revolutionize

— 40 —

the world — not in the glorious deeds of history — but
in the small services we can render one to another —
in the little things that await us each moment of our
time. There is always something to be done — to be
done by you. See that you do it.

I know of no more effectual death-blow to ethical
crankiness than that. Until we have made an end
of moralism as a fad, as a hobby, we can never take
it to heart or make it the be-all and end-all of life.
And until it is this, the truth and the way must
remain uncertain to the end of time.

Ill

"SUGGESTION" AS A FACTOR IN
CHARACTER-BUILDING

The principles of hypnotic suggestion are so generally
comprehended, that there is no occasion that I should
offer any remarks by way of explanation.

Almost everybody now-a-days understands some-
thing, at least, of the theory of the so-called
"subliminal self" or "sub-conscious mind" and con-
ceives it to be possible to induce certain states of
feeling, disposition and habit, by the agency of the
" will," exercised either by oneself or another.

One can scarcely take up a newspaper unless
one finds some announcement in the advertisement
columns to the effect that " Professor " Somebody-
or-other will be willing to impart, (for some
ridiculously trifling consideration,) exhaustive instruc-
tion upon the subject of self-command, together with
information as to the control of fate, fortune,
circumstances generally, and heaven knows not what

— 42 —

besides. Whether this enterprising gentleman might
be described as a quack or a charlatan, need not
for the purpose at present in view concern us.

What may fairly be assumed is, that the public
mind is imbued with the unassailable conviction
that there is at any rate something to be said for
his pretensions. Nor need we dispute the point
that there is more than the proverbial " grain of
salt" in such claims. That hypnotic methods are
bond fide is too well established to call for argument
or debate.

What, however, popular opinion is not so well
informed upon, is the practical aspect of this question.
Directly the words " hypnotism " and " suggestion "
are mentioned, one finds that people are inclined
to jump instantly to the unwarranted conclusion
that one is necessarily referring to some species of
occultism or mystery. The subject is so completely
identified with the various branches of transcenden-
talism, and so readily associated with the idea of
visions and trances, that it is difficult to make
people realize that it can possibly have any
immediate connection with the facts of their normal,
or waking life, in relation to which its value and
importance are inestimable. It is just here, as it
seems to me, there is the urgent need for a more
thorough and intelligent grasp of the subject. It

— 43 —

will therefore be my endeavour, as far as possible,
to offer some suggestions more especially with this
end in view.

And in proceeding to do this, I would first of
all remark that the hypnotic process is of far
commoner occurrence than is generally supposed.
Consciously or unconsciously we hypnotise others, or
are hypnotised in turn (partially, at least) almost
every day of our lives.

How usual it is for the most obvious facts of life
to escape one's notice ! Such creatures of habits are
we, that by far the most important problems of
existence pass unheeded altogether. And here is
one such : the enormous part which is played by
"suggestion" in our daily life.

I wonder whether it has ever occurred to us
how much of our life is passed unconsciously —
involuntarily — apart from the exercise of our much-
vaunted volition and intelligence ?

We have been so much accustomed to regard
ourselves exclusively as self-conscious, rational beings,
that it is something of a shock to discover how
limited, in reality, are the range and extent of
human faculty. We are apt to forget that, after all,
reason is not the fundamental ingredient in our
composition, any more than our mental and moral
nature is wholly dependent upon it, and that, on

— 44 —

the contrary, however important a rdle it may
assume in our normal state, our emotions and
feelings must still assert themselves. The enormous
importance of the law of association of ideas, to
which modern psychologists have devoted so much
attention, goes to show how entirely we are de-
pendent upon our involuntary life — our instincts and
sensations.

If you watch yourself at all closely, you cannot
fail to discover that " suggestion " is a far more
influential factor in your daily life than is commonly
assumed to be the case. Every object that one sees,
suggests to one's mind and feelings somewhat more
than one consciously supposes. In the course of a
walk in the street, or a ramble by the hillside,
one encounters numberless instances of this.

I pass (we will say) the shop window of a
confectioner. The tempting delicacies displayed
therein have caught my eye. I linger a moment
or two — from sheer habit, as I did when a boy,
and my mouth begins to water. What is the
explanation? The vision before me has involuntarily
awakened all the sub-conscious impressions lying
latent in my mind, which are associated in some
way with the flavours of the delectable morsels which
are placed in the window to attract the passer-by.

If I happen to be the fortunate possessor of

— 45 —

money, I very likely enter the shop without a
moment's hesitation and there and then purchase
some of the good things ; whilst if I am a poor,
but hungry man, one of two alternatives may present
itself: either I may be tempted to yield to a
momentary impulse to take some of the goodies
without payment (if I think I shall be able to elude
detection), or I may" stand at the door and beg for
some coppers, in the hope of being able to buy for
myself. Whether begging or stealing is justifiable
or no we need not delay to consider. The point
is : that the suggestion is sufficient to account for the
subsequent action which takes place.

The range and application of this principle of
" suggestion " are practically unlimited. All of us
rely upon it to some extent. The business man,
who "bluffs" and contrives "to get the better" of
the person with whom he happens to be dealing,
" suggests " what he wishes to his victim, (who, little
suspecting his intentions, is completely talked round
in spite of himself). A good deal of nonsense is
often talked about the power of "fascination" and
" personal influence." These may, it is true, exist.
There are people one meets who seem to positively
exhale a vital, magnetic atmosphere — just as there
are others who appear to deplete one. " Suggestion "
will, however, go a good way towards accounting

- 46 -

for personal success. The man or woman who is
looked up to and regarded as an exceptional being,
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is simply the
person who is able to exert the force of "suggestion"
upon others.

And the fact must not be overlooked that, although
the word " suggestion " has only recently acquired a
specific meaning for us, mankind has for countless
generations been familiar with the principle of which
we are speaking. In Egypt and in India it seems
to have been extensively practised in connection with
the religious exercises of the people. Even to this
day, with ourselves, the ecclesiastical authorities
cannot afford to dispense with its employment ;
every rite and ceremony of the Church having a
suggestive as well as a religious significance.

And this brings me to a point which I am
especially desirous of emphasizing, which is this :
How exceedingly suggestible the mass of persons
still are. Religiously speaking, it is true, they may
be more independent and rational than formerly, but,
in the main, how sheep-like the masses are content
to remain ! When we say that a person can " think
for himself," all we really mean to say is that he
is not so apt as others to receive promiscuous
suggestions; he allows himself time to deliberate
and consider before he consents to act. These

— 47 —

people, however, it is obvious, are in the very small
minority.

In this age of ours — an age of publics rather than
individuals — people are, in many respects, doubtless
far less credulous, far less believing, far less sugges-
tible, than formerly. Their implicit faith in super-
natural providences, in kings and princes and other
personages of supposed superiority, has unquestion-
ably diminished. Even now, however, one finds few
persons who are not dominated by some hypnotic
spell or other.

When we speak of likely subjects for suggestive
treatment, we commonly think of the people who
are most easily sent to sleep by the operation of the
hypnotist. We think of some special form of nervous
organization which the text-books would have us
believe is especially responsive to the passes and
commands of the mesmerist. But, in reality, the
number of suggestible people is far greater than we
or the hypnotists themselves ordinarily suppose.

Everybody who allows himself to be dominated by
the special opinions which prevail around him for no
particular reason, is partially hypnotised.

People are inclined to imagine that the hypnotic
condition is a mere physical abnormality, a matter
which science is competent to treat and explain. In
reality, however, the hypnotic trance is a far more

- 48 -

complex phenomenon than that. People can, in
point of fact, be mentally and morally hypnotised,
and that irrespective of the ordinarily-recognised
means.

Nothing is commoner than to discover people thus
hypnotised — hypnotised, that is to say, to some
craze, fad, view or opinion. Countless cases of the
kind will occur to one. Anybody who is the slave
of custom or the victim of habit is hypnotised to
some extent. The society-butterfly, the political
crank, the "Christian scientist," the disciple of
Tolstoy or Bernard Shaw, and the victim of drink
or morphia, are all in the same boat : all are
hypnotised ; and whilst all these ends cannot
seriously be regarded as equally undesirable, the
attitude which is encouraged in every case is dis-
tinctly prejudicial. And this for the reason that it
answers to a more or less complete suspension of
the rational mind.

With many people to such extreme lengths is this
carried that the mention of a mere word is sufficient
to produce a hypnotic effect. We all know of people
who are affected thus. Not only must that "blessed
word Mesopotamia" be held responsible for nine-
tenths of the world's enlightenment, but other words
— such as State, Government, Socialism, Imperialism
— have had, at one time or another, an almost

— 49 —

equally potent effect. And strange as it may seem,
the explanation is simplicity itself. The sub-con-
scious storehouse of these people's minds is so over-
laden with certain notions imbibed from particular
sources pertaining (more or less remotely) to these
topics, that, whenever the word is mentioned, all
their irrational feelings are stirred, and they give
vent to a more or less violent emotional outburst.
Instead of attending to the view which may be pro-
pounded to them, they allow their old sub-conscious
impressions to gain the ascendancy, so that they
sometimes become positively insane.

Slight variations of these phenomena may be wit-
nessed in different persons. With the political maniac
the very mention of "Keir Hardie" or "Chamber-
lain" is sufficient to arouse any amount of such un-
controllable vehemence. And countless other forms
are assumed by the self-same impulse. With Robert
Browning, the poet, it seems to have taken a very
peculiar shape. You had only to mention the word
"Spiritualism" in his presence and he would imme-
diately turn livid with rage. A sort of " collective
hypnotism " of the same kind is seen when, at music-
halls or at any large public gatherings, applause or a
hostile demonstration greets the references which may
be made to national events or well-known personages.
All hypnotised persons live in a little paradise

— 50 —

or hell of their own creation. Now everybody, no
doubt, is entitled to this. The mistake however
arises when one fancies that one's own abode must
necessarily be that of everyone else. Yet that is
precisely the state of mind of the hypnotised person.
He is the victim of one idea: upon that his atten-
tion is fixed to the exclusion of everything besides.
Concentration of the attention, it may be said, is by
no means an undesirable mental element in itself.
At the same time it is not everything. Contrary to
the prevailing impression, genius is not merely an
infinite capacity for taking pains. There must be
something more ; and the essential difference between
a "one-idea" (or hypnotised) person and a truly
rational individual is, that the latter selects his ideas,
while with the other his ideas control him.

All unthinking, heedless people are likely to be
hypnotised with a varying measure of success. These
people are dominated by their subjective ideas. It
is a peculiarity of the subliminal consciousness that
it can initiate neither thought nor action. Its action
is purely involuntarily, and all that it can do is to
respond to whatever suggestions may be made to it
Such suggestions may either be made by another
person or lodged in the objective or conscious mind.
But in any case the "sub-conscious self" will, unless
it be controlled, dominate. And there is, as it seems

— 51 —

to me, a very grave clanger with all of us in this
respect.

Without due forethought and a just discrimination,
how easily we are persuaded against our better judg-
ment and will ! How often one finds the most
deplorable instances of this ! How many people who
are not "wicked" but "weak" are irretrievably ruined
by worthless companions and associates ! Knowing
as we do the overwhelming importance of environ-
ment and early training, how can it be that we blind
ourselves to the immense significance and scope of
such a factor as personal suggestibility? As it is,
however, how little this question is considered ! How
rarely it is realised that the sub-conscious impulses
of the young and weak-minded must always follow
the path of least resistance ; and that they comprise
all those tendencies, habits, instincts and failings
which have been handed down through a long line of
ancestry, from a remote past, which (unless restrained
by the rational mind) must inevitably wreck the
entire character and career.

The need for instilling into the young the value of
self-reliance is of paramount importance. All who
have devoted the least thought to the great questions
of life must have felt how essential is solitude — that
spirit of self-communion in which one is led to seek
the intrinsic worth of those principles by which one

— 52 —

will elect to live. To surmount the temptation of
yielding too readily to the wishes and opinions of
others, no course save this can be adopted with safety.

There are people who tell us when they have had
some proposal made to them that they will "think it
over," or "sleep upon it." They are wise. Instead
of accepting "suggestions" off-hand, they have come
to realize the value of acting upon those only which
are actually of use to them, and which they have
accepted on their own personal responsibility. And
this is the important point — because I would not
be understood to say that suggestion is essentially
harmful (which indeed it is not).

People often ask us whether one person should
hypnotise another. If by this they mean should one
person experiment on another by seeking to subju-
gate that person's will, then I would reply assuredly
not. Nobody should attempt to control another in
any shape or form. At the same time, what we have
to remember is, that we are both suggesting and
being suggested to almost every moment of our lives.
Every word we utter, or that is spoken by another in
our hearing — every gesture we make, or see another
make — the most fugitive glance — a stray motion of the
eye — the movement of a finger — have a suggestive
value ; and the moral point is this : that the one
thing at which we must aim is right suggestion.

— 53 —

Instead of allowing ourselves to be at the mercy of
our unrestrained impulse and emotion, we must hold
the rein tight and take command.

The secret of the matter then lies in being able
to decide which suggestions are to be received and
which should be rejected. The sub-conscious im-
pulses may be compared to so many handles by
which our will is enabled to grip our mental and
moral nature. Here our judgment must enter, and
thus by a process of discrimination the foundation
of character will be laid. This, however, cannot be
so long as old habits remain uncorrected. Until new
aims and objects and interests are furnished, no im-
provement will be wrought.

And here, before concluding, let me say a word or
two about the rescue of our habits from the sub-
conscious department of our life. Whilst it is well
to entrust as many habits as possible to the auto-
matism of the body, the greatest care must be
exercised in the formation of habit at the outset. If
we watch ourselves we shall discover thousands of
small habits which stand in need of instant rectifica-
tion — little mannerisms, tricks of speech, and so forth.
These, though far from wrong in themselves, may
easily become a most prolific source of trouble to
us ; and hence, both for our own sakes and that of
others, should receive immediate attention.

— 54 —

To rescue a habit, a more critical attitude of
mind should be adopted. If anybody asked me for
advice upon this point, I should be inclined to say
this : In the first and last place, consult your better
judgment and rely upon your conscience in the
whole matter, and make your decision accordingly.
Personally, I am convinced that there is no better
plan than to make a practice of being undisturbed
and alone for a few minutes each day. Let anybody
spare (say) ten minutes in the morning when he
will be free from interruption — and then quietly take
stock of himself

Let him, as far as possible, rid himself of the
anxieties and cares of life : forget that yesterday
existed, or that to-day must be lived through —
and for a moment or two realize that he is living
in eternity. And when I say this, I do not mean
that a dreamy visionary mood should be invited.
What I do mean is, that one should be able to retire
at the word of command from the accustomed scene
of struggle and stress which is involved in existence.
For this purpose I know of nothing better than
to secure a moment or two of silent meditation
at fixed intervals. Let a person who thus aspires,
make it a principle to take some short passage
from a favourite author — some quotation (say) from
Ruskin, Carlyle, Emerson, the poets, or the Bible.

— 55 —

And having done so, let him not only recite the
words, but absorb the sense. By this means, he
may discover a new point of view in his universe
— he may even himself become a creative force in
the world.

And this is the value of suggestion : to enable
us to see the " hidden things " — to unveil the
secrets which are realized only by the discerning.
The prophets and seers of all ages have thus
known — and in those hours when we re-think their
thoughts, and experience afresh their emotions, we
enter anew into the heart of things.

IV
THE KEY TO PERFECTION

All moral and religious reform may be said to
have, for its ultimate aim and object, Human
Perfectiontnent. Man as he is, and man as he
may become — our limitations and achievements on
the one hand, and our aspirations and possi-
bilities on the other — must assuredly be regarded
as the fundamental consideration in all problems
which have acquired a spiritual significance for
us.

Goethe has declared that " the wish to be perfect
is the measure of man." And undoubtedly he is
right; because, however grievously he may appear
to outrage the law of his being, and however
wilfully he may transgress and defy those supreme
ordinances which originate in his own higher nature,
man is a creature whose constitution is incessantly
compelling him to seek out that which will enable

him to rise in the scale. It is upon this discovery

- 56 -

— 57 —

of his that we have bestowed the sacred name,
Ethical Ideal.

It is, perhaps, oftentimes difificult for us to realize
the moral purpose in life. So gradual, so imper-
ceptible, is the process by means of which the
redemption of man is accomplished, that we may
almost be led to doubt its existence altogether.
How often one is tempted to question the moral
tendency of events, and to ask whether, after all,
life in the aggregate is richer, fuller and completer
than it was : whether things have, in reality,
improved : and whether, in the main, men are on
the upward grade. How many of us, I say, put
such searching questions to ourselves, and seek in
vain for the solution.

Yet the answer is nigher than we think, and
proofs in the afifirmative are awaiting , us already
in the record which we may discern in the
evolutionary history of the race. As we glance back
upon the past, and compare the actual attainments
of man with the immeasurable desire for the better-
ment of the lot of the species to-day, one is forced
to accept, however reluctantly, the admission that
there is, in man at least, "a power that makes for
Righteousness" — a something seated in the angelic
breast of the forerunners of our race that is bent
upon effecting the deliverance of mankind. This

- 58 -

much, at least, is certain ; and, indeed, I think that
we must further recognise that, as compared with
the evolutional process in general, this factor of
which we are speaking works with surpassing
celerity. When one contemplates the inconceivably-
protracted periods during which the world-process
has accomplished itself, with the relatively short
space of time during which man has won his way
even to his present estate, I say that one has every
reason to thank whatever gods may be, and to hold
one's peace henceforward. However far distant the
millennium may be, at least we have the best of
grounds for assuming that something has been not
only attempted, but achieved.

It is not, however, to my purpose to take a survey
of human history from this standpoint. Here one is
naturally on debatable ground, and one feels well
nigh appalled by the prospect which opens up before
one's vision. To what extent man has, in the past,
progressed, or whether or no the race is at some
future time destined to approach some inconceivably
wonderful state of perfection, need not concern us.
Such an enquiry, after all, is best undertaken by
the historians and anthropologists, who have already
furnished us with an imposing array of theories upon
the subject. What I am rather anxious to consider
is the sense of perfectibility in man — which may be

— 59 —

said to exist in the soul of each one of us, and
which may be regarded as the well-spring of all
our higher motives, conduct and character.

That all of us have indeed some such standard of
goodness to which we would attain, it seems almost
superfluous to state. Human nature is, in its very
essence, governed by the contemplation of ideals, and
especially of moral ideals. And, whilst this same
moral bias may be educated, trained and developed,
like any other faculty, it must yet remain the ab-
solute fact of life for us for all time.

And in embarking upon this subject it may be
pertinent to put one question at the outset of my
reflections — viz.. What are we to understand by the
term " Perfection " itself? What practical significance
can be said to attach to the word for us ? and how
may the conception which it embodies be regarded
as having any utility for us?

As I commenced by remarking, our conception of
man, in reality, involves and includes some con-
ception of an ideal self. Somewhat there is within
us which is seeking to transcend our empirical self;
somewhat there is potentially resident within us
which ever implies more than we can at any time
be said to actually express. How much of the life
of everyone of us lies beneath the surface, beyond
the rude powers of computation at our disposal !

— 6o —

How many of our dearest wishes and most cherished
ideals remain, in consequence, unrealized ! I often
think that the foremost problem of life consists in
summoning at will these more intimate states of
consciousness. If only we could do that, and had
even the courage to attempt it, how different life
would be ! As it is, how seldom we dare to name,
either to ourselves or another, these foretastes of a
wider bliss !

As I say, then, there is that within us which is
seeking, partly consciously, but largely unconsciously,
some measure of perfection — that which is attempting
to achieve a larger growth than is ours to-day. Yet
what is it that we mean when we speak of striving
after, or reaching. Perfection? and what import can
the word be said to have for us?

First of all, now, let me speak of the abuse of this
word. With only too many, it is to be feared. Per-
fection suggests the idea of some remote, if not
unattainable, state of being. Only too often we find
it identified with some super-terrestrial condition,
involving some species of hyper-human excellence.
And it may be well to point out how demonstrably
false and misleading such a conception is. I am
often tempted to speculate whether mankind could
be influenced more adversely by wrong ideals or by
having no ideals. If I were seriously asked, I should

— 6i —

be inclined to say that false ideals were more per-
nicious than no ideals. How infinitely better many
people would be if, instead of allowing themselves
to dream of the lofty heights which they fancy they
were made to scale, they would content themselves
by remaining what they are, and fulfil their appointed
tasks !

How often this word Perfection is applied to some
state of existence altogether apart from the aims and
interests of life as we know it — to some hypothetical
state of beatitude such as would involve the suspension
of every function by which we are enabled to manifest
our manhood and our womanhood ! What cannot
but be the result? Is not the result an almost
entire emasculation of every moral and virile trait?
The popular view of Perfection is mischievous in the
extreme. In the first place, it is too exclusively
associated, from long usage, with the conventional
notions of sainthood, martyrdom, angelic beings and
demi-gods. It is arbitrary. It savours too much
of a contempt for ordinary and natural distinctions
between right and wrong. When once one reaches
these superior eminences, there is always the danger
that the facts of the common-life will escape one.
And such, in practice, only too often proves to be
the case. In reaching out to the infinite, how many
a man neglects the claims of the finite. And what

— 62 —

reference, one would ask, can the life of some
celestial being, robbed of all human feelings and
emotions, bear to yours or to mine ? — to what
extent can the fabled immaculateness of imaginary
deities be said to affect us? — or how should we try
to order our lives according to such patterns? Is
not this self-imposed task, in only too many in-
stances, an utter impossibility ? I am acquainted
with many persons, both outside and inside orthodox
circles, who affect to believe that Perfection must
consist in the subordination of life to some such
abstract ideal. Their one aim is to crush out sensa-
tion, to rid themselves of every natural feeling, to
dispossess themselves, in point of fact, of every dis-
tinctively human characteristic. Oblivious of the fact
that to mortify the passions is by no means the
same thing as to conquer them, they have imbibed
the fallacious notion that, to purify and ennoble life,
their one aim must be to become non-natural. As
if, forsooth, nature could be opposed to their highest
interests ! What is the result ? These people, who
are usually the most sensitive, sentimental and emo-
tional of folk, are betrayed into acts of the utmost
folly. In straining after the unattainable they miss
the attainable. Self-deceived, they pass their lives in
the most demoralizing of dreams.

Do you know that it sometimes seems to me that

- 63 -

what is wanted in life are not " ideals " at all ?
What people stand in need of are not theories and
dreams, but the common-sense, the courage and con-
viction which would enable them to free themselves
from the spell under which they have been cast by
the dreams and visions and ideals of other people.
Our thinking has, for ages, been corrupted in this
way. As a consequence, our lives have fallen far
short of what they should and might have been. We
are still contaminated with puritanic notions. Instead
of recognizing that the body must be reckoned with
and made a co-operator in life by being trained and
directed towards moral ends, we still prefer to regard
the flesh as the foe of the soul. We have put our-
selves into moral blinkers, so that by far the greater
part of the beauty and truth of the great world of
nature in which we dwell has been lost upon us.

Many people still glorify the ascetic life for its own
sake — as if it were necessarily something "good" to
make oneself uncomfortable. If only a man is mild
and meek, or poor and resigned, he is certain to
have sympathizers. Sympathy however of this sort
is the curse of our civilization. It is a moral miasma
— the deadliest drug — stultifying every ethical instinct
that man can lay claim to. When shall we cease to
profess to think that suffering and privation are provi-
dentially ordained, but know them as the resultant of

- 64 -

bad economic conditions? When shall we be honest
and sincere enough to take the responsibility for
crimes of omission, as well as crimes of commission,
upon our own shoulders? We are already, it is true,
beginning to do this ; but our progress as yet is
slow. Before it can be accelerated, popular opinion
must have realized that to acquiesce in the inevitable
is no proof of virtue. A state of society that admits
of no room for the legitimate exercise of human
emotion, so far from being wise and beneficent, it
must be seen, is utterly opposed to any worthy
ideal of human perfection. So far from its being
"wrong" for people to covet means, opportunity,
power and so forth, nothing could possibly be better
— providing only that these things are directed to
social ends.

Fanatics and fools may tell us that these things
are delusions and snares ; but who, I would ask,
having enjoyed such privileges, would be willing to
forego them? Does not such an one feel that the
best course open to him, if he is a normally-
constituted being, is to utilize these things in such
a way as to secure both his own and others' well-
being? Such a man is a true individualist: though
in what respect his ideal is in conflict with the
requirements of social democracy I am at a loss to
discover.

- 6s -

Unworldliness {i.e., public spirit) and other-
worldliness (self-abstraction) are often confounded.
Nothing is more usual than to hear people confuse
these terms. Yet, as may easily be seen, they are
diametrically opposed. For whereas other-worldliness
is simply a state of natural blindness, and hence a
condition of spiritual obscurity, unworldliness is that
state of detachment which enables us to utilize all
goods, functions and faculties which are at our
command, for the common good. Whilst the one
state is paralyzing and suicidal, the other is the
means whereby a man learns the secret of perpetual
renewal.

Yet other-worldliness, even now, is quite commonly
regarded as the lawful attitude for man. Men still
adorn themselves with moral blinkers, and endeavour
to strain their transcendental notions into unison
with their lives. But how their life loses in the
process ! When Jesus of Nazareth counselled the
wealthy young man to dispossess himself of his
riches and to distribute to the poor, he may have
had in mind some such notion. With his almost
fanatical zeal for the poor and the oppressed, "the
beautiful gentle God " may have regarded riches in
themselves as a curse and a pitfall. When he
advocated self-renunciation he may indeed have
believed that to abjure one's natural wishes and

— 66 —

desires was positively essential to salvation. But if
so, whatever may be pleaded in extenuation of his
theory at the time at which he taught, let me
expressly point out that the concensus of opinion
at this hour does not bear out the tenability of his
gospel ; nobody, not even the bishops, being anxious
to forego the stipends to which their exertions may
justly entitle them. And, let me add, that they are
right. Whatever transcendentalists may allege, to
live without the wherewithal is like embarking upon
some commercial enterprise without capital.

There is, however, an alternative interpretation of
the Prophet's words. And, for my own part, I
cannot help believing that it is this which must
have been in his mind. What I take to be the
true import of his words, " Sell all that thou hast
and give to the poor," is this : that implicit reliance
upon externals, in any shape or form, is incompatible
with progress and enlightenment. To be wise, to be
just, to be in any sense perfect, one must as a
preliminary have elected to live by the inward law
— one must have divested oneself of current super-
stitions of sense — and have consented to rule one's
life according to the dictates of reason and conscience.

Anything short of entire self-commitment cannot
be accepted. All is determined by the attitude and
volition of the believer. To me (perhaps because

- 67 -

he still stands in my eyes as one of the most
stupendous events that our benighted world has yet
beheld), it is utterly inconceivable that Jesus should
have extolled poverty at the expense of every other
condition. And, although this seems to have been
the impression which he produced in men's minds,
I still question very much whether his teaching as
a whole justified any such assumption on their part.
Great wealth may, it is true, have its drawbacks,
and now no less than formerly. Its presence at
least testifies to inequitable social arrangements.
But where, on the other hand, is the merit in being
either poor or rich?

Is the rich man to be cursed because he prefers
to administer his wealth himself? Is the poor man
to be blessed simply because he manages to escape
the responsibilities which riches should entail ? Let
us confess it, under existing arrangements, the
poor can seldom afford to be '' good " : goodness
entailing a certain measure of means. Can we not
see that the virtue of self-sacrifice is simply a
figment of a disordered moral imagination ? That,
if we are normal, healthy beings, we do desire and
must desire a sufficiency of this world's goods for
ourselves, and something over and above to share
with others ? Why should we shut our eyes to
this?

— 68 —

To be deprived of worldly advantages, either by
God or man, believe me, is no greater blessing —
either in disguise or otherwise — than to embark upon
a career of indulgence and debauchery. Mean-
spirited, idle, irresponsible people may try to per-
suade us that poverty is blessed. Our statistics,
however, warrant a very different opinion. Far more
wickedness, it turns out, is attributable to poverty
than to wealth. Beautiful as may be the virtue of
contentment, the fact must not be lost sight of
that we are enjoined to be content with what
we have, and that to be contented when we have
nothing is impossible. Nothing can be more natural
than for people to desire the means of gratifying
their emotions, and the sooner it is realized the
better. I would add, moreover, that it is not only
natural, but right, and that it is right because it is
natural.

In the second chapter it will be remembered that
I spoke of the "one-virtue" folk — of the people who
delight to ride the moral hobby, and who would
have us believe that a man's entire life should be
cast in the mould of some one virtue. Thus we
have people who extol thrift, or honesty, or sym-
pathy, to the exclusion of every other virtue, and
who push these virtues to their extremest limits.
Such people depict the whole world as a gigantic

- 69 -

savings bank, or Sunday school, or as if it were a
monster soup-kitchen. But what such people do not
realize is the relativity of virtue, and the fact that,
unless a sense of proportion be observed, every virtue
may assume the nature of a vice. To regard the
moral life in this mechanical manner must be to ruin
its essential meaning. Life cannot be summed up in
a single virtue. Perfection does not consist in the
attempt to adapt ourselves to the moral opinions
which spring from the minds of others. If Perfection
is genuine, it is spontaneous.

A solitary virtue, reared and cultivated as an
exotic, is generally a cloak for some vice. When
people pride themselves on the possession of some
one excellence, one as a rule does well to avoid
them. How many people assure us that they are
sticklers for truth, for example, or that their one
aim is to be fair and just in their dealings. How
is it that these very people so often fail in matters
of common honesty, where people with fewer preten-
sions would perhaps succeed? If virtue be genuine,
its mention is superfluous. The good man is good
simply because he cannot be otherwise. Only the
degenerate and morally defective prate of virtue.

And here a word or two as to the danger of the
mere assumption of virtue may be not out of place.
As a rule, people appear to be tolerably particular

— 70 —

to avoid the appearance of evil. This doubtless is
as it should be. But directly a person is unduly
anxious to avoid outraging the canons of propriety
and convention, one has reason to be on one's guard.
The over-particular, "mock-modest" person is usually
the moral weakling. He must have something — so,
what he lacks in character he has to make up in
reputation.

I do not think that any sincere man need trouble
about his reputation. Take care of your character
and you can afford to let reputation look after itself.
Human Perfection, such as it is, must depend, in the
first, second, and third place, on one thing : that
thing is character. Character, however, does not
depend upon outward parade. It is an inward, and
therefore a revealed fact. All perfection, however, is
inward before it is outward.

Perfection, if it be natural, must be the outgrowth
of oneself — the expression of the life of the soul.
It must therefore be unique, the product of what
Emerson speaks of as self-reliance. The humblest,
as well as the greatest, soul may be perfect, after
its own order. The perfection of the daisy or the
forget-me-not is as complete as that of the orchid
or the rose. Perhaps the beauties of the latter are
more apparent ; but if so, it is because our standard
of beauty is inadequate and artificial, perfection being

— 71 —

exemplified wherever the fulfilment of function is
illustrated.

And this suggests to me the thought (which shall
be my last), how easily the assumption of virtue
defeats its own end. However good a man may
profess to be, depend upon it the real test of his
worth comes out in his relations with others. To be
" good " is not enough. It is a mere fiction. To
be good in a human sense must mean that one is
good for something — for some end, for which they
are content to live. Thousands of people are ready
to be " good " — for nothing in particular. They like
the " idea " of " goodness " ; it fascinates them. They
like to fancy that there is some "invisible" portion
of themselves remaining undiscovered by the "coarse
people" about them. It consoles them to think that
" some day " they will be understood, and their fine
intentions will be appreciated at their true worth.
But such "Perfection" is nothing less than a myth.
Be content to be good, and you will seem far better
than you deserve to appear. Declare your latent
conviction, and however much you may be misinter-
preted, some one at least will discover you.

How amazingly quickly children see through the
artificiality of pretended virtue. Have you ever
thought why it is that if you take ever such pains
to teach children the things they should know and

— 72 —

do— their prayers, their Bible, and the rest of it—
unless you live as you would have them be, you will
never succeed in making them good children? Have
you ever considered why it is that children, as a
rule, copy the bad deeds of their elders sooner than
their good deeds? We are sometimes told that
this is the result of natural depravity. I do not
believe it. There is a more satisfactory explanation.
Children copy our bad deeds quicker than our
good deeds simply because we are in earnest
about them. We do our bad deeds to please our-
selves, but half the time we assume virtues simply to
impress other people. The child sees through our
veneer. It knows we backbite, and cheat, and tell lies
in earnest — whilst we are half-hearted with our virtues
— and so it copies our failing before it condescends
(as alas ! it does later) to imitate our virtues. The
moral bias of the child is of extraordinary strength.
It may be wrong for children to backbite and cheat
and tell untruths. I do not say that it is not ; but
it is a thousand times worse for their elders to
expect children to practise something that they are
not prepared to do themselves.

The sooner we get rid of all abstract Perfection
the better. I do not wish to anticipate what I
purpose to deal with in the next chapter : but this
much I will say — that Ideals which have no place

— 73 —

in our lives, which do not take the form of concrete
acts, and are incapable of being translated into deeds,
are a hindrance rather than a help.

We have much to learn, but we have much more
to unlearn. And one of the principal things that
we have yet to realize is that Perfection is not
ready-made for man. There is no Perfection awaiting
us, either in heaven or upon earth.

No God can manufacture Perfection for you and
me, any more than He can create righteousness.
Perfection is not static, but dynamic. If we must
have it, it must depend upon ourselves — upon growth
— upon development. No disciple — no mere follower
of another — no mimic can be perfect. To be the
mere echo of another — even of the greatest man
who ever lived — to be the incarnation of Jesus or
Buddha himself, would not mean that one had
reached Perfection. No : to be perfect, one must
have become oneself; have taken himself for better
or worse, have learned the value of self-reliance,
and in that have realized the supremacy of principle.
It is in this that Perfection inheres, and well is it
for that man who, thus knowing, abideth therein.

V

IDEALS, IDEALISM, AND IDOLATRY

Man is by instinct creative. His kingdom does
not lie in the actual alone. There, it is true, his
aspirations and yearnings, his apprehensions and
misgivings, are at length destined to fulfil them-
selves. His nature and constitution, however, adapts
him to become the inhabitant of another — perchance
a loftier clime — to wit, the possible.

By virtue of an inherited impulse within us, we
are all idealists at heart. Involuntarily, (I had
almost said, in spite of ourselves,) we are compelled
to view life from some ideal, some imaginary stand-
point — and are forced, as it were, to construct a
universe in some measure in keeping with our own
peculiar individual idiosyncrasy.

It is pre-eminently characteristic of human
childhood thus to disport itself in a region peopled
by the phantoms of its own creation. Age may
bring wisdom or disillusionment, but nescience and

— 75 —

infancy revel in such supersensible imagery. From
the very earliest times, before the race emerged
from its primeval savagery, we find man bent
upon picturing to himself a state of things far
removed from the existence which his senses
reported to him. And it is no less true with the
individual. Only as we attain to years of discretion,
— when the romance and poetry of life are supposed
to be outworn or crushed out of us — are we willing
to confess that life as it is and life as it may be,
offers the directest of antitheses.

And of all the errors and follies into which a
man may be betrayed, even as he grows older,
there is none more subtle, none more insidious or
deadly, than the cherishing of some false, some
outgrown ideal. And when I say a false ideal, let
me attempt to make my meaning clear at the
outset.

Man is, by nature, a worshipper. His heroes and
demi-gods have, from the beginning of time, been
part and parcel of his very existence. Without some
higher being, some alter-ego, or some apotheosized
self — some object, no matter what, which he was
at liberty to reverence, love, obey and serve, in
some shape or form — it were impossible for man
to have existed.

And when we consider this matter, how much

- 76 -

this instinct still weighs with us. \Vhere is a single
act, one thought, or even so much as a word which
one feels to be worthy of oneself, that has not
been prompted by some ideal consideration — some
lofty purpose, or for the sake of some supremely
sacred person or principle which one may have
postulated ?

We may, some of us, have got beyond the stage
when we could honestly say that we did all for
Jesus' sake. We may possibly no longer pretend
that we are Christians in any orthodox sense, (any
more than we are Buddhists or Mahomedzms, or
followers of Confucius). Yet this rupture with the
old metaphysic does not involve the rejection of
all, or indeed any, of the ideal standards (for the
ideal is, after all, not independent of ourselves). On
the contrary, whether our ideal at this moment be
personal or impersonal, whether it be incarnate in
some human or celestial being, or whether it be
represented in some principle to which we may
have jrielded unfeigned allegiance, an ideal for us
it still remains. And without ideals, without the
recognition of some power beyond our actual selves,
without the realization of some infinity either about,
above or within us, human activities were impossible.

Whilst this is so, however, it is no less a fact
that ideals will, and must in the very nature of

— n —

things, vary from age to age. There is a " fashion "
in ideals, as well as in manners, customs or religions.
Ideals partake of the nature of the soil whereupon
they are raised, and are inevitably conditioned,
according to circumstances and events. Not only
may we remark that religious and social ideals
have varied enormously at different epochs, but
also, as we review our life retrospectively, we may
observe that our own ideals have undergone untold
modification and change.

As children, our ideals were inspired, I suppose,
very largely by our parents, and by the relation in
which they stood to us. Accordingly, we modelled
our lives very much upon the ideas with which they
imbued us. In seeking to please them, we naturally
accepted the point of view which they selected as
suited to us. Later, however, as we came to think
for ourselves, as we began to consider more the
necessity for taking our own part in the drama of
life, our ideals underwent a corresponding change.
This change may have been, as it probably was,
well nigh imperceptible. It nevertheless occurred.
Instead of remaining content to derive our standard
from a concrete example without, we came to adopt
some sort of abstract ideal within ourselves. Whether
we admitted it or not, our individuality gradually
asserted itself, and as we acquired greater self-

- 78 -

reliance and came to realize the importance of
exercising our reason and judgment, so we came to
find in these faculties the very loadstar of our life.
Perhaps we were driven to this extremity through
sheer necessity. Perhaps we discovered that the
advice which our elders gave us was, in the long
run, prejudicial to our truest interests. Perhaps we
had been deceived and disillusioned. Perhaps, too,
we found (as I believe we all do, sooner or later)
that one man cannot live for another — that a model
which will serve for one person is not necessarily
that upon which another should seek to pattern his
life. But in any case — if we were wise, if we were
people of even average thought — we decided that it
was best for us to cut ourselves adrift from our old
moorings, and start life on our own account, without
the old theories which we had learned, or mislearned,
in our youth.

And yet, whilst this may have been so, and great
as may have been the change that was wrought in
us as we grew up, how many of us, I wonder, could
honestly say that he was now living up to his own
ideal — that he was true to that ideal which he felt
to be in keeping with his specific moral and spiritual
requirements? or how many could seriously pretend
that that ideal upon which they have professed to
set their heart was truly worthy of their devotion ?

— 79 —

The more one considers this matter, and the more
one reviews one's life, the more perplexing does the
problem which we are considering become.

Personal ideals, when once they are formed, I
would point out, are the most difficult of all things
to eradicate. It is comparatively easy to convince
a man of the folly of his deeds, or to succeed
in showing him that he has been guilty of some
special piece of concrete wickedness. You may very
speedily persuade a person to believe that he has
committed some actual offence or other. You may
go so far as to invent some imaginary sin, and even
impose on his credulity to the extent of making
him confess that he has been the perpetrator of it.
Society constantly does this. Officials are retained
and paid to keep up this semblance of morality.
Judges and magistrates and policemen exist for the
express purpose of terrorising over unfortunate people
in this manner. And many of these people, rogues,
vagabonds, ne'er-do-wells, and other social pests,
actually come in many cases to believe that they
are leading worse lives than persons who pass for
respectable folk, but who, I would add, are often no
less idle and worthless. Nothing can be easier than
to induce a person to repent of his deeds ; to get
him into a frame of mind in which he will be led
to regret his behaviour. For him to abide by what

— 8o —

he has done, a man must be a very extraordinary
moral hero.

But to persuade a man to confess that he is in
theoretical error, that his ideals are false, and that he
is acting from unworthy motives, is by no means so
easy. Neither your indigent loafer nor your wealthy
loafer shows the slightest wish to do that Nor will
any man confess, if he can possibly help it, that he
has been cherishing all along some vain, idle, mis-
chievous delusion, to which his conduct was really
attributable. He is too great a coward. And so he
"bluffs" us. He puts us off by telling us that his
inner life is his own "private" concern — that it is
" sacred "—like "the home"— like his "family life."
What hypocrisy ! It is hidden because it will not
bear inspection ! Outward conformity is his god.
That is all he requires. And so, in time, he comes
to be an atheist — the only sort of atheist that we
know of — a man who denies the authority of con-
science — who sets at defiance his inner monitor.

There are many persons, I believe, who imagine
that ethical religion actually countenances all this
sort of thing. There are many persons, I affect to
think, who imagine that all attempts to inculcate
moral instruction are doomed to failure ; and that
all we can reasonably expect to attain is a certain
degree of conformity. Only too often morals are

— 8i —

proverbially, a commonplace affair. As if morals were
a question merely of trick, habit or imitation. How
insupportably fatuous! Ethicism, truly interpreted,
is by no means a mere system of legal compulsion.
The very last thing in the world that it would
advocate would be to force anybody to adopt any
special code or course of life against his better feeling
and judgment. So far from that, ethical religion is a
standing protest against the absurdity and immorality
of expecting any man to conform to any ordinances
or opinions whatsoever, be they human or divine,
simply on the score that they have received universal
acclamation. All morals, if they be genuine, must
be an individual matter. There is no such thing as
moral or immoral custom. In other words, ethicism
is a plea for idealism.

But when this fact is affirmed, let us see what
the admission really involves. The last thing that
either ethical religion or its representatives would
seek to encourage is the misleading view that ideals
of any kind are worthy and beautiful in themselves.
As such, ideals have no value whatever. Unless they
are vitalized by human purpose and endeavour, they
might just as well be non-existent. For "idealism,"
in the usually accepted sense, the ethiculturist has
little use. If, however, the ethical religionist is not
an idealist in the philosophic sense, neither is he of

— 82 —

necessity a utilitarian. Without committing himself
to any one theory as to the genesis and evolution of
the moral nature, what he would affirm is this :
whether or no an "ideal world" can truly exist
alongside of the present world — whether or no there
be a "higher life" awaiting us — whether or no there
be "divine justice" executed in the universe — this
much at least is certain : unless we grasp as the
essential principle of life the fundamental fact that
the conditions of life are remediable, and not only
so, but that it is within our own province and
power to do something to actually better them —
nay, that it is our bounden duty to do this —
and that all speculation as such is irrelevant — we
must fail to realize the claims either of morality
or religion.

The breach between " religion " and " morality '' is
deplorable. To conceive of religion as applying only
to transcendental and miraculous processes is as per-
nicious as it is fallacious. Morality, if it be genuine,
is religion. Just think of the number of people
who misconceive religion as it is only too generally
understood. Sundry visionary ideas are entertained
and encouraged simply because it fascinates these
people to harbour them. I would not suggest that
to live in the contemplation of such notions could
not yield any result. But would to God that such

- 83 -

results were different from what they only too often
prove !

Numbers of people whom one knows embrace what
they are pleased to term Christianity. Twentieth-
century Christianity is a truly remarkable product.
We are told, too, that it is no less beautiful : that
the sublime central figure, so full of pathos and
tenderness, is a glorious and blessed inspiration.
Undoubtedly, it may be replied, it may have been
so ; thousands may even now believe it to be such.
But the real point is : how far does it inspire those
who profess to live by it? So many people hold
ideals as if they were trump-cards, or because they
imagine that, even if they are of no special use to
anybody in particular, they are "on the whole good
for the world at large." I need hardly point out,
however, that there is no merit in entertaining
" beautiful thoughts " for the sake of others, but that
the only merit consists in doing beautiful deeds for
their own sake.

I have often put the question to people : " Why
do you profess such profound admiration for Jesus?"
And the answer I have received has invariably been
of the vaguest character. These people have replied
that the conception itself was " so glorious, so stu-
pendous, so unique," that it could not fail to appeal
to any man ; and that it would appeal to me in the

- 84 -

same way if only I were spiritually awakened. But,
I will put it to you, what do these terms, "glorious,"
"stupendous," "unique," mean? What precise idea
do they convey to our mind unless we accept them
as applying to ourselves?

The real point is this : how far does the ideal
weigh with us, and to what extent are we willing to
refashion our lives upon it? Are these people who
tell us so much about Christ as a fact and a pattern
for men, prepared to carry out the things which he
presumably regarded as essential to men's eternal
peace? Do they distribute their goods to the needy,
or do they not grumble at the rates? Are they
content to be persecuted, regarded as insane, outcast,
betrayed or crucified for their sentiments, or do they
not take care to live with as little inconvenience to
themselves as possible ? Here is the test ; so far as
I can see, the only test.

But if you tax your twentieth-century Christian
with these matters, he replies that the times are
changed, that Christ's work has so far been accom-
plished that it is no longer necessary to fulfil his
Master's injunctions "too literally." That the times
have changed I am quite willing to admit; but that
the triumph of Christianity has been complete as the
confident tone of its average advocate would lead me
to suppose, I am by no means so certain. But this

- 8s -

may be allowed to pass. What, however, cannot but
strike the impartial observer is the singular in-
congruity between the theory of Christianity and
the practical life of self-respecting and respected
Christians. In view of which fact I ask, " Then why,
in the name of common honesty, select an ideal up
to which it is impossible to live ? Can you, my
friend, honestly afford to profess one thing and at
the same time allow your life to be a flat contra-
diction of it?"

Please understand that I am not arguing in favour
of primitive Christianity. I do not believe in the
necessity for self-immolation, or vagrancy, or poverty.
Far from it. I do not honestly believe that the
world would be a better, sweeter, cleaner place if
you and I were to perambulate the thoroughfares of
our crowded metropolis announcing that the kingdom
of God is at hand. On the contrary, the offence that
we should offer to the powers that be — and especially
to the custodians of official Christianity — would alone
forbid such a procedure. Neither do I believe that
it would be advantageous to the population if we
volunteered to part free of cost with our possessions.
The education which we receive in the hard school
of experience, and which I believe would forbid such
philanthropic enterprise, I take to be a far more
effectual teacher than any sentimentalism associated

— 86 —

with Christianity. What I do say, and say without
an instant's hesitation, is, that men are singularly,
lamentably inconsistent. Such "faith" as they hold
is only too often a sham, a pretence, a make-believe.
At least, they do not believe in the God they are
supposed to worship at all. All that weighs with
them is the fear of man — the fear lest they should
be suspected of " religious infidelity," whatever
that may mean to them. They quake lest, unless
they bow before the popular idol, they will be
anathematized.

The "popular idol." That is exactly what Christ
has become — a popular idol — a myth — an "ideal" —
something to be "reverenced," "loved," "sought,"
" believed in " — anything but lived. How terrible I
Christ, a myth ; Christianity, a " beautiful thought."
How awful ! Yet such is the situation. If this is
not the case, why is it, I ask, that people would
rather be thought "unchristian" than "pagan"? It
is esteemed a comparatively insignificant offence to
be guilty of some breach of Christ's injunctions — to
defame, envy, swindle or pervert the truth ; but to
openly announce one's disbelief in an impossible
ideal is still , to court social ostracism ; and this
despite the fact that one may still live up to the
highest ethical code, which (after all) is all that man,
or God for that matter, can require. Oh, the un-

- 87 -

speakable hypocrisy of it all! When shall we have
the courage to openly profess an ideal up to which
we can live? Why cannot people at least have the
common honesty to renounce their ideal if they
cannot mend their ways?

So my point is this : unless an ideal can be lived,
it is useless — it is dead. And what is worse, the life
of such a man is dead also. Every moment that
we devote to revering such an ideal — every moment
that we spend in hymning its praises — is so much
waste of time and breath — a living lie. Better by
far have no ideal at all than a useless ideal. It
may be said, as it probably will, that to saturate
oneself with holy and unselfish thoughts and feelings
must be, upon the whole, a beneficial thing. By
many it will be urged that " thoughts are things,"
and that to accustom oneself to an "ideal attitude"
is not without its advantages. Up to a certain point
I am in sympathy with this objector.

So convinced indeed am I that thought-training is
essential to everyone, that I would recommend every
man to set apart, if it is only a few moments each
day, for the express purpose of meditation upon
some lofty theme. The value of such blessed
moments cannot be over-estimated. But on the
other hand, it must not be forgotten that life is not
exclusively a question of conscious thought. A

— 88 —

great part of life, the "higher" part of life, is passed
consciously. But a still greater part of life passes
entirely below the threshold of consciousness ; is
lived apparently independently of any "conscious-
ness" (in the human sense) altogether.

It will be remembered that, in the third chapter of
this book, I showed how enormously "suggestion"
influenced practical conduct, and that I pointed out
that, as sub-conscious action played an immense part
in regulating all those automatic movements which
comprise our habits, it was exceedingly necessary to
direct these operations from the moral plane of our
being. I think that, if we ponder this matter at all
closely, we must realize how necessary it becomes to
cultivate the moral attitude itself as a habit.

People often make one fundamental mistake, and
the mistake is this : they imagine that thought can
be an end in itself. Thought can never be that. If
you think merely in order to think, you have started
on the wrong tack altogether. The experience of
any practical man will bear me out in this. Ask
any man who has proved the utility of an active,
industrious career, whether he can afford to live
merely in order to think ; whether, that is, life has
come to mean no more to him than a state wherein
he is able to dream upon the visionary speculations
of the metaphysicians. I am sure you will find that

- 89 -

he will reply it has come to mean something in-
finitely more than that. Sometimes, do you know,
I almost envy the lot of the man who has no oppor-
tunity, no leisure, to think. So much that passes for
thought is mere dreaming. At least such a man
does not realize the extent of his privation. Whereas,
where one philosophizes to excess, one is in danger
of losing one's initiative, and becoming a veritable
moral paralytic. Too much time by half is devoted
to pondering over life, and whenever this becomes
an end in itself, we shall find that we entertain a
false estimate of life. To live in the true sense
must, indeed, mean that one is able to think — and
think honestly and clearly at that. Yet to live to
any purpose, the thought-factor must not be unduly
accentuated. It must enter in naturally. Having
sought, so far as one is able, the right object, we
must act — we must dare — we must do.

And so, let my last word be this, and I have
finished : When you examine yourselves, examine
your ideals. Are they worthy of you? Submit
them to the test of rigorous, practical experience.
Do not scorn to be a realist. Ideals assuredly you
must have. You cannot live without them. But do
not cheat yourselves into thinking that ideals them-
selves are sacred, or have any intrinsic value. They
have just the value that you choose to give them.

— go —

They are worth just what they will fetch. Impossible

ideals must be disposed of. They belong to the

lumber-room of the soul. Periodically the soul needs

cleansing and renovating. A strong will is essential

for this. The idols must be broken. The false

gods, who no longer reign for the common weal,

must go. The true God must be enthroned.

To idealize is only too often a luxury. It must be

something more. It must be a necessity. To be

profitable, it must be a duty — a duty that has for its

object one single fact : the uplifting and ennobling

of life.

" So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man.
When duty whispers low, thou must.
The youth replies, / can!'

Such is Emerson's verdict. Thus is the Divine
Ideal identified with the self, which, under the com-
mand of the moral consciousness, can execute its
behests.

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Thkimjno Anbwees. — "Thought-Force" gives an answer to questions like
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Llda A. Churchill— continued.

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The life which is moving in the natural, which is the God-appointed way,
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JAMES COATES, Ph.D., F.A.S.

Self-Relianee. Practical Studies in Personal Magnetism, Will-Power and
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Punctuality— Suggestion and its Application— Non-Comatose Anto-Sugges-
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Seeing the Invisible. Practical studies in Psychometry, Thought Trans-
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Telepathy— Psychic Faculty and Telepathy— Psychic Faculty and Tele-
pathy (continued). Appendix.

GUSTAVUS COHEN.

Popalap Handbook to the Study of Phrenology. Revelations ot
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Contents. — Marriage and its Advantages — Age at which to Marry — The Law
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How to Acquire and Strengthen Will-Power, Modern Psychotherapy.

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Richard Insalese— con^'nued.
religious, and metaphysical press in ita review of the book. lb is the text-
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and how to use such power in any desired direction. Following is the
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Occultism : its Past, Present, and Future— Divine Mind : its Nature and
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Law of Ee-embodiment — Colors of Thought Vibrations — Meditation,
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Stage Hypnotism: a Text-Book of Hypnotic Entertainments. Cloth.
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O HASHNU HARA.

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O Hashnu Hara— continued.
Practical Yoga. A Series of thoroughly Practical Lessons upon the Philo-
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Practical Hypnotism.— Tenth Edition. Absolutely what it claims to be,
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A Practical Manual, clearly teaching 18 different methods of inducing
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Contents. — Introduction — School of Mesmer — School of Nancy — School of
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L. N. FOWLER &■ Co.'s List of Books.

O Hashnu Hsirai— continued.
The Complexion Beautiful; or New Skins for Old. How to gain a
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Practical Psyehometpy : its Value and How it is Mastered, is net, post

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Contents— Rules for Unfoldment — What Psychometry is — How to psy-
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of Thought on the Body — The Astral Light— The Human Aura — Questions
— Tests, &c. The Vibrations of Colour — Meanings of the various Colour
Clouds seen in the Aura — The Kurana Sharira, or Invisible Guide — Clair-
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z,. ^v. ruivj^HK Of v^o.s List of Books.

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L. N. FOWLER &> Co.'s List of Books.

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CoNTBNTS. — The chapters comprising this work contain much food for reflec-
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adverse suggestions and what to substitute for these. The Self and the
Sub-Self : The three-fold Nature of Man as defined by St. Paul— The In-
fluences of Popular Religion — Dr. Morton Prince on Dissociation of a
Personality — Three Personalities in one — The Story of " Sally," " Spirits,"
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reason for the great diversity of opinion regarding the so-called "Sub-
liminal " Self : The " Unconscious Mind " in Health, Disease, Insanity, or
our duplex Mental Mechanism — Our multiplicity of Selves — The " Unfold-
ment," Sub-Consciousness, Self -Consciousness, Super-Consciousness, Cosmic-
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and knowledge — The Cause of Hereditary and Automatic Actions — The
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and the Individual — Man as he is, Man as he may become, the Unseen, the
Higher Good, Progress, the Unit, the State — The Essence of True Reform.
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Problems — What has raised the Status of the Female— Mid- Victorian Era
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rules are given whereby the reader may take advantage of the teaching
laid down in this work. The following are the leading subjects dealt with
by the Author : —

Light and Life— Colour: its Value and Importance— Colour in relation to
Health and Disease — Chromopathic Methods — The Human Aura— Supple-
ment, with Plates.

L. N. FOWLER 6= Co?s Ust of Books.

ALFRED T. STORY.

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Subjects treated in this Volume are : — Introduction — Good Morning in
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of Light— The Law of Being — How it Works— Good Circulation — Low
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J. H. TUCKWELL.
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Well nigh boundless are the hopes which, not only the promises of religion,

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through America s foremost newspapers and periodicals to herald the gospel
of New Thought to the World. " The Heart of the New Thought" ia the
title of a new book by Mrs. Wilcox. It consists of thirty-one complete
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L. N. FOWLER &> Co.'s List of Books.

SPIRITUALISM :

THE OPEN DOOR TO THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE.

Being Thirty Years of Personal Observation
and Experience concerning Intercourse be-
t-ween the Material and Spiritual "Worlds.

By JAMES ROBERTSON

(O; GLASGOW).

Clotb, about 400 pages. Price Ss. aet, post tree Ss.

4d.

THE Author of this remarkable book is a business man of high
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of modern spiritualism for many years. His wide experience enables
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No man within the arena of British spiritualists can better tell
the story of its growth in these Islands during the past thirty years
than the writer of this work — few could tell it as well.

No movement which has originated during the past sixty years
has exerted so powerful an influence upon contemporary thought as
modern spiritualism has done.

The Contents show a wide field embraced by the Author.

CHAP.

1. The Starting Point.

2. First Experiences.

3. Storm and Peace.

4. The Literature of Spiritualism.

5. Alexander Duguid.

6. Personal Developments.

7. Some Strenuous Workers.

8. Friends in the Cause.

9. Genuine versus Counterfeit.

10. Theory and Practice.

11. Rational Spiritualism.

12. In Various Fields.

13. Deeper Aspects of Spiritualism.

14. The Owens.

15. The Religion of Spiritualism.

16. Scientific Testimony.

Appendix : Spiritaalism and

CHAP.

17-
18.

19-
20.
21.

23-
24.

25-

26.
27.
28.
29.
30-

The Battle of Ideas.

Gerald Massey.

Remarkable Commanications.

A Travelled Spiritualist.

The Mission of Spiritualism.

David Duguid's Varied Medium -

ship.
Wonderful Materialisations.
Workers and Organisations.
Spiritualist Periodicals.
Further Public Testimony.
Mr. George Spriggs.
More Spirit Photography.
Spiritualism a Revelation.
The Struggle of Sixty Years.

the Society for Psychical Research.

Z. N. FOWLER &> Co.'s List oj Books.

" A selentiflc worlc, eonehed In simple languaee, demonstpatlne the existence of
the soul, and of soul faculties. By a well-known authority."

SEEING THE INVISIBLE.

PRACTICAL STUDIES IN
Fsyehometry, Thought Transference, Telepathy, and Allied Phenomena.

By JAMES COATES, Ph.D., F.A.S.,

Author of " Human Magnetism,'* "The Practical Hypnotist," ^^ How to Thought- Readt
"How to Read Heads^' '^ How to Read Faces," etc., etc.

Crown 8vo, cloth, xvi + 298 pages, with five Plates. Price 5/- net, post free 5/4.

** C EEING THE INVISIBLE" cannot be very well described in the brief space
O at the publishers* command, but they have no hesitation in recommending it
as a work which all students of human nature will prize. It is based upon practical
investigations, many of which can be repeated by the reader, affording proof that
"man is a soul" here and now.

•'SEEING THE INVISIBLE," ACCEPTED BY THE KING.

The Author has been honoured by ike following letter from Buckingham Palace^
dated December 6tk, igob. —
** The Private Secretary is commanded by the King to thank Dr. Coates for his
letter of the 3rd inst,, with the accompanying copy of his book, *Seeingthe Invisible.'"

Letters of acceptance and commendation have been received from a host of
leading writers and investigators of Psychical and Spiritualistic phenomena, including
the Marquis of Bute, Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., W. H. Terry (of Melbourne), Mrs.
Charles Bright, Jas. Robertson (Glasgow), among others. It appeals especially to
Churchmen and Ministers of Religion, as it furnishes them with evidence of maris
spiritual nature and powers while in the body.

"Among tbe many volames that are issued from the press on the all-embracing subject of
psychology . > ■ none has yet appeared of such a practical and interesting character as the volume
bearing tbe above title by James Coates, Ph.D., F.A.S." — Harbinger of Light, Dec. xst, igoG.

" Mr, Coates, the aathoti heus spent his life in inyestigation and experiment of the unknown
Borderlaodt and he has much that is absorbing and starding to telL He convinces even tbe sceptic."
^P.T.O., Oct., 1906.

'* Dr. Coates has filled a volume with tbe accumulated testimony of each observer given, and the
reader will peruse it with an absorbed and sustained interest." — The Irish Times, Dec. 2ist, 1906.

" Tbe book is unpretentious and simple in style. Tbe author gives reason for the faith that is in
bim in such a winning manner that tbe open-minded reader cannot fail to be attracted by his
pcisonzWty."— Liverpool Courier, Jan. i8tb, 1907.

" Dr. Jame^ Coates, of Rothesay, has long been known in the West of Scotland as a successful
hypnotist and an intetligent writer of psychic science. His latest work, ' Seeing the Invisible/ deals
with practical studies in psycbometry, tbou^bt-transference, telepathy, and allied phenomena. Most
Qfieful instruction is given as the best condition under which psychic experiments may be conducted."
—Dundee Advertiser, Oct. 4th, 1906.

*'Dr. James Coates and Mrs. Coates have devoted their lives with exceptional assiduity and
success to the practical study of psycbometry, thought-transference, trlepalhy, and allied phenomena
and ibis volume is part of tbe tesults of their labours. Whatever views one may hold about the con-
nection between the visible and the invisible, be must read this book with candour and impartiality
Tbe great physiologist, Dr. Wm. Carpenter, laid this down as a matured fact : ' Man's conscious life
essentially consists in tbe action and re-action between bis mind and all that is outside it— tbe mb and
tbe NOT MB. But this action and re-action cannot take place, in his present stage of existence, without
the intervention of a material instrument, whose function it is to bridge over tbe hiatus between tbe
individual consciousness and tbe external world.' This is the keynote of Dr. Coates* volume. Tbe
author successively treats of man's psychical nature, invisible forces and emanations, Nature's invisible
biograph, psychometric experiments and oractice. psychical faculty and telegraphy."

L. N. FOWLER &' Co.'s List of Books.

HOW TO MAKE A MAN.

By ALFRED T. STORY,

Author of " The Face as Indicative of Character," " Memory : How to Make and

Keep it Good," etc.

Crown 8vo, 140 pages. Price 2s. 6d. net, post free 2s. 9d.

CONTENTS.

CiEOTUBE I.— Prenatal Preparations— What the Stock-Breeder does— Caretol Selec-
tion—The Mother as Divinity— Crimes against Childhood— Drink-begotten Children— The
EtUb of Tobacco — Inflnence on Children — American Colleges and Smoking— Smoking
among Boys— Causes Deterioration— Proposed Anthropometrical Surrey of Children-
Drink V. Tobacco— Too Early Marriages- Duties of Marriage— Shames of Civilisation-
Fortunate Natures.

LECTUEB II.— Description of the True Man— The True Woman— The Best Way to
Train Children— The Schoolmaster— The Mother of Beal Men— The Beligion that is a
Mockery — The Task of the Mother — The Power of Women in making Men — The Need for
Preceptors to bring out Character— Parental Deficiencies— The Female Preceptress— True
V. False Chivalry.

LECTUBE III.— The Spiritual Essence of Life— Considerations for those about to
Marry— The Decreasing Birth Bate— Whose the Blame— The Criminal Qaiverful— First
Essentials of Training— Coddling— Cold Bath— A Worthy Divine— School v. Home Influ-
ence— One-Sided Men— Need of All-Bound Education— Man and Nature.

LECTUBE IV.— The Human Animal— The Power of the Mother— Early Impressions,
their Importance— Dropping in the Good Seed— The Training of Appetite— Proper Feeding
— The Best Food for the Young — Teething— Fresh Air and Exercise— Moderation — '• Second
Nature" — The Mastication of Food — Bepletion— Drinking at Meals — Infant Mortality —
Ignorant Mothers— The Slum and the Gin-Mill.

LECTUBE v.— The Importance of Body Culture— Child Exercise— How to Make a Boy
Manly and to Give the Girl Strength of Character— The Influence of Brothers— The
Canker of Fashion on Girls— The Modern Society Maiden— Tight-Lacing— Art v. Fashion
—Effects on Health and Unborn Generations — Cramped and Distorted Feet— No Better
than the Chinese— What Women Might Do.

LECTUBE VI.— Effects of Physical Suffering on Temper— Importance of Moral Train-
ing—The Training of the Emotions- The Sexual Passion— Neglect of the Teaching of Boys
and Girls alike— Other Passions and Impulses— The Wise Preceptor— The Need of a New
Type of Man— The Half-Trained— The Need of Beginning with the Child— Teaching by
Bote not Enough— Gilt Texts do not make Golden Characters.

LECTUBE VII.— Children not the Besult of Chance— The Working Classes and
Beligion— A Travesty of Christianity— First Aims of Education — Formation of a Physical
Conscience- Nature's Method- The Self-Controlling Will— How a Lack thereof is shown—
Emulating the Lower Animals — The Building up of a New Type.

LECTUBE VIII.— How to Cultivate a Controlling Will— Moral ConseionsnesB—
Feathers and Frippery— The Sensible and Moral the Same— Dirty Habits— Cleanliness
and Success — The Mania for Dress— Gauds and Gewgaws— The Influence of Mind — The
Spiritual Atmosphere— An Effective Will— The Greatest Power we have— How to Cultivate
it— Spencer's Method — The Mothers Influence — Unnatural Education — Intellect and
Emotion— A Lady's Views— The Material Base of Lite— The Semi-Truncated Mao— Silent
Suggestion— The True Education- The Central Truth— A Final Word.

" ' How to Make a Man,' by Alfred T. Story, is a series of lectures which were originaUy pat
together as ' Vital Talks on Health and Mentality.' His fundamental idea is that healthy and robust
children are not the result of chance, and that it is not the Almighty who sends ailing and defective
children into the world, but that all ofifspring, whether weak or strong, dull or intelligent, are con-
ditioned by their parentage. Parents will find very much of value in this book." — Dundee Advertiser.

•'Messrs, L. N. Fowler & Co., London, have published a book of conversational lectures on
health and the formation of character, written by Alfred T. Story, and entitled ' How to Make a Man.'
They are interesting and suggestive discourses in practical ethics, full of useful hints to parents and
guardians and men who seek advice in the matter of self-culture," — Scotsman.

" So much is heard of the deterioration of the race now-a-days that any writer who can put us oQ
the right track ought to find many readers. . . , Mr. Alfred X, Story essays th& task." — Tniune,

L. N. FOWLER &' Co.'s List of Books.

THE BEDROCK OF HEALTH.

BASED ON THE ANTI-COLLiEMIC RADICAL CURE OF
DISEASES AND CHRONIC DISORDERS.

A New System of Treatment evolved from the Succeeafvl Results of Modem Scientific
Research and Practical Experience, lucidly delineated for the purpose of

SELF-TREATMENT WITHOUT PHYSIC.

By PROFESSOR R. J. EBBARD & P. W. VOQT.

PROFESSOR EBBARD'S latest and largest work will open a new chapter
in the lives of all those who take it up. Years of diligent study, research,
experiment and experience have at last resulted in the evolution of a system of
treating and curing disease which can honestly be called one of the greatest
achievements of modern times. It denotes quite a new departure in thera-
peutics, and may be described as —

MEDICAL REFORM SCIENCE.

Cloth, 292 pages. Price 6s. 6d. net, post free 6s. lOd.

An Extract from the Contents will give an idea of the scope of the cure
(we insist upon regarding this work not as a literary effort, but as
a coarse of treatment, a kind of Some Self-Doctor) : —

(a) DisBABSS oir THS Bony System : BicketB, bad growth of teeth, brittleness ot the
tepth, softening ol the bones, fragility of the bones, inflammation ot the periosteum,
inflammation of the marrow of the bones, inflammation of the joints, etc.

(i) Diseases of tee MubouiiAB System : Bheumatism, mnscalar weakness, muscnlar
paralysis, fatty degeneration of the muscles, hardening ot the moscles, wasting of the
uiuBoles, nervous rheumatism, etc.

(c) DisBABEB OF THE DiGEBTrvE Okoahb t Inflammations, catarrhal affections of the
mouth, tongue, gums, parotis, tonsils, throat, oesophagus, catarrh in the stomach, dilation
of the stomach, ulceration of the stomach, nervous dyspepsia, cramp iu the stomach,
chronic intestinal catarrh, appendicitis, indigestion, constipation and piles, peritonitis,
dropsy, diseases of the liver, jaundice, biliary colic, etc.

(d) DiBEABBB of the BijOOS-CiBoniiAiioN : Anssmia, chlorosis, scurvy, hsamophilia,
hEemaoelinosis, diabetes, gout, oxaluria, obesity, scrofula, wounds and hsmorrhagea,
diseases of the vascular system and heart, etc.

(e) Diseases of the Ubinaiiy Obqanb : Acute Inflammation of kidneys, bladder-
stones, gravel, catarrh ot the bladder, Brigbt's disease, etc.

(_/) Diseases of the Bebfibatoby Oboans : Gold in the head, chronic catarrh in the
nose, nose-bleeding; diseases of the larynx, acute and chronic catarrh of the larynx;
diseases of the wind-pipe and bronchiee ; bronchitis, croup, bronchial dilation, whooping
cough, asthma, catarrhal inflammation ot the lungs, pleurltis, petitouitis, dropsy in the
chest, etc.

(g-) Diseases of the Sehsoby Obqans : Inflammation ot the ear, diseases ot the eyes,
nose, etc. ; diseases ot the skin— eczema, psoriasis, acne, lupus, tnxnncleB, barber's rash,
itch, etc.

(k) Diseases of the Nebvous System: Congestion, headache, megrims, nervous
pains, neuralgia, epilepsy, St. Vitus' dance, hysteria, fits, irregulaj; menstruation, palpita-
tion of the heart, etc.

(/) Diseases of the Befboduotive Obgans.

(i) Sexdal Neukasthenia.

(I) AouTB, General, Infectious Diseases and Neoplasms.

Special chapters have been devoted to Constipation and Diabetes.

FACTS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

Over 20|000 copies of the Anti-Colleemic Radical Cure have been sold

abroad in less than two years !

L. N. FOWLER 6r» Co.'s List or Books.

SELF-RELIANCE.

Practical Studies in Personal Magnetism, Will-Power and Success,
through Self-Help or Auto-Suggestion.

By JAMES COATES, Ph., F.A.S.,

Author of "Human Magnetism;' "Seeing the Invisible," "The Practical
Hypnotist," etc.

Crown 8vo, 300 pages, one Plate. Price 5s. net, post free 5s. 4d.

THIS volume is based on a course of private type-written instructions specially
issued to correspondents of the Author, and these have been revised and
adapted to a larger clientele. No book issued by us appeals to all classes of the
community like this. Seekers after health, mental self-control, business and pro-
fessional men alike, will find in it helpful advice. Few books have been less
adversely criticised and more heartily received by the Press at home and abroad.
There is a total absence of the misleading and pernicious stuff which mars so many
works dealing with "Personal Magnetism." The Author deals largely with the
power of Auto-Suggestion in the development of Self- Reliance, and here he brings
his well-known ability to bear, making it clear to the meanest intellect how to help
one-self, by this psychological process, to health and success in life. He starts by
making one acquainted with self, and treats the whole in several lessons or chapters
on: Self-Reliance or Faith in Self; Personal Magnetism and Self -Culture ; Success
and some Methods of Attainment ; How to cultivate Will-Power ; The Will and its
Development ; Defects in Will and how to cure them ; Moderation the Key to Self-
Control ; Will-Power and Success ; The Power and Dignity of Labour ; Concentra-
tion, Order and Punctuality ; Suggestion and its Application ; Non-Comatose Auto-
Suggestion ; gives Practical Instruction in Physical and Mental Modes, and concludes
with special Auto-Suggestions for the cultivation of Self-Reliance.

PRESS OPINIONS.

" Here is a great fund of valuable hints and information that everyone will readily assent to.
Every chapter contains much that should inspire the reader to put forth his best efforts. Self-control,
moderation, correct breathing of pure air, etc., are all laid due stress upon, as also— what is one of the
most difficult things the average student of any subject has_ to learn — is the necessity for steady per-
sistence, undeterred by difficulties. It is by one step at a time that the roughest road is covered or
the most difficult hill ascended. The book lends itself well to casual reading when a few minutes can
be spared, and the need of some impulse to sticking to the work of self-improvement is f^t." — The
Success Ladder^ July, 1908.

"In 'Self-Reliance,' by Mr. James Coates, we are recommended to his method of control — to
prevent worry by auto-suggestion, to strengthen will, to make the intellect dominate the feelingSi
letting them guide rather than lead. On this subject we have had niuch religious and theoretical
teaching, but the present writer would have us be practical and experiment. There is much that
appeals in his teaching in so far as it seeks to prevent thought and imagination from running riot.
Altogether the book is helpful and suggestive, and would encourage one to a healthful introspec-
tion. — Glasgow News, Oct., 1907.

"Mr. James Coates* new book on * Self-Reliance ' . . , should prove helpful to many who feel
themselves lacking in the power to ' get on ' or make their way in the world." — Ligkt^ Nov. 8, 1907.

" ' Have faith in yourself and others will have fsdth in you * ; such is the text. . . . Body and
mind act and react, therefore walk upright, keep your mouth shut, and look the world in the face.
Do this in body and the mental habit of confidence will result. The book (' Self-Reliance') is full of

sound and practical wisdom. The chapters on auto-suggestion are particularly helpful." T^

Literary World, Feb. 15, 1908,

" If this counsel be followed it is practically certain that the powers of the will and of self-control
will become greatly strengthened, and firmness and courage will be developed. The book, it should
be added, is written in very simple language, with an avoidance of all unnecessary technicalities, and
the writer's instructions seem to be based on sound} practical common-sense." — The Natal Witness
Jan. ey, 1908.

' The TheosopMsi, April igo8, cordially recommends the work, and concludes its review with :

**Alany members of the Theosophical Society, therefore, will find the book bristling with useful
suggestions for practical work for the control and culture of mind and thought."